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, there are only 5,000 - 6,000 cases per year on average and the epidemic peaks in September and October, but this year the outbreak has started strongly since May. So far, nearly 8,000 cases have been recorded, with 4 deaths. In the past 2 weeks, the number of patients has continued to increase rapidly, with 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, patients only have fever symptoms, so it is easy to mistake it for viral fever. Therefore, when people have fever symptoms 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 of body weight/24 hours (children should use a dose of 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 drugs to replace it.

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 the side effect of causing gastric ulcers and can cause gastric bleeding and vomiting blood.

When taking these two drugs, in mild cases there may only be bleeding under the skin, in severe cases it will increase the risk of bleeding gums, nosebleeds, even vomiting blood, and massive bleeding.

For dengue fever patients, the fever usually lasts continuously for 2-7 days. According to doctors, for dengue fever patients, the first 3 days are not life-threatening even if they have a high fever, except in cases of chronic diseases or 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... the risk of death is very high.

According to VNN