The Dengue Scare

So, recently my mother became the victim of one of the most deadly virus we have ever seen-dengue. Let me remind you that every day 10-15 people are dying due to this deadly virus and right now there is a scare spread throughout the Punjab province. I got the opportunity of witnessing how and what happens in dengue. Of course, I know that there are awareness campaigns going on all over the country but I do want to do my bit. So even though the person who is ill seems to be in the biggest trouble but sometimes the people taking care of the ill person are also in a huge trouble. Of course we all know about the apple juice with lemon remedy and the papaya leaf juice remedy but here are a few extra pointers to help you properly take care of the person down with dengue.

Get help: in my case it was my mother who fell ill so I felt completely confused the first few days about what to do and how to do it. Trust me; the patient’s temperature does not even come near to normal. No matter how much sponging you do, the fever does not go down. So it’s always better to get help. Call your aunts, uncles, grandparents; whoever can help you out should be there with you and the patient will feel better once he/she spends some time with their family.

Get professional help: As much as the patient and you require your family’s support and love at this moment; the patient requires professional help as well. There is a lot of speculation around about people saying not to take the patient to the hospital as this disease has no medicine and the patient might catch some other disease. Please don’t believe that kind of rubbish talk. Take your patient to the hospital as soon as possible and take him/her everyday in order to at least get a proper check up done. I’m saying this because one of the most dangerous things in this disease is the rate at which the blood pressure drops. My mother’s blood pressure dropped so fast that by the time we got her to the hospital, she fainted and fell down on the floor.

Don’t force the patient: one of the things that I have noticed in almost all the dengue patients is that tend to have really bad mood swings so my advice is that don’t force them into doing something they don’t want to do. If they want to sit and don’t want to lie down, don’t force them to. If they don’t want to eat or drink something (except for their medicines), don’t force them to. Ask them what they want to eat or drink right now and try to get that for them. When they will eat something that they like, they will eat more than you could have imagined.

Patience:  so I saved the best for the last. This is one advice I would like everyone to follow. Dealing with a dengue patient, seeing how ill he/she Is in addition to the mood swings they will have; you will have to show the utmost patience with your patient. Don’t lose your strength; try to hold it together as long as you can and deal with the patient with as much love and care as you can. Don’t worry everything will get back to as it was In a jiff.