Risk of massive bleeding when dengue fever self-medicating

When having a high fever of 39-40 degrees, many people arbitrarily buy fever-reducing drugs to take, which can cause complications such as vomiting blood and massive bleeding.

» Dengue fever outbreak in Dien Chau

The dengue fever situation across the country is extremely tense with nearly 60,000 cases and 17 deaths.

In Hanoi, the average number of cases per year is only 5,000 - 6,000 and the peak is in September - October, but this year the outbreak has started strongly since May. So far, nearly 8,000 cases have been recorded, 4 people have died. In the past 2 weeks, the number of patients has continued to increase rapidly, more than 1,000 - 1,600 cases per week.

At the Central Hospital for Tropical Diseases, the number of patients hospitalized for dengue fever has increased 10 times compared to last year, with more complicated developments and many severe cases.

Dengue fever patients being treated at the Central Hospital for Tropical Diseases. Photo: T. Hanh

According to the Director of the Department of Preventive Medicine, Tran Dac Phu, in the early stages of dengue fever, the patient only has a fever, so it is easy to mistake it for a viral fever. Therefore, when people have a fever and suspect dengue fever, they must go to the hospital for examination and rapid testing.

Mr. Phu recommends that when dengue fever has not been ruled out and there are signs of muscle pain, headache... people absolutely should not buy aspirin and ibuprofen on their own.

In the treatment regimen for dengue fever, people should only use paracetamol to reduce fever. The total dose should not exceed 60mg/kg body weight/24 hours (children should use 10-15mg/kg), taken every 4-6 hours when the fever is 38.5 degrees or higher.

However, many patients and parents are impatient when paracetamol does not reduce fever deeply and causes fever to return quickly, so they frantically look for other alternative drugs.

In fact, the platelet count in patients with dengue fever will decrease rapidly, while aspirin and ibuprofen both have the effect of preventing platelet aggregation and anticoagulation, increasing the risk of bleeding in patients. Aspirin also has side effects that cause gastric ulcers and can cause gastric bleeding and vomiting blood.

When taking these two drugs, mild cases may only cause subcutaneous bleeding, severe cases will increase the risk of bleeding gums, nosebleeds, even vomiting blood, and massive bleeding.

For dengue patients, high fever usually lasts for 2-7 days. According to doctors, for dengue patients, the first 3 days are not life-threatening even if they have a high fever, except in cases of chronic diseases, pregnant women, and children.

In normal cases, if you test positive for dengue fever, you just need to go home and receive treatment according to your doctor's prescription and return for a check-up from the 4th day as directed.

Those with underlying diseases and warning signs need to be kept in a hospital for observation. The most dangerous stage is from the third day onwards. If treatment is delayed, the patient may experience dangerous complications such as: circulatory collapse, shock, internal bleeding, cerebral hemorrhage... with a very high risk of death.

According to VNN