KUALA LUMPUR, 6 July 2009 - The fight against the rising number of dengue deaths can be won if doctors identify the warning signs of dengue haemorrhagic fever (DHF) in time and hospitalise patients immediately.

At present, some non-critical patients are warded while those with DHF are not.

Hospital Sungai Buloh infectious disease physician Dr Suresh Kumar said this was because hospitals treated dengue like any other disease.

"No other disease is as challenging to us as dengue because the symptoms are so unpredictable and constantly changing.

"We should manage dengue patients much like trauma patients."

He was giving an overview of the new clinical practice guidelines for the management of dengue infection in adults at the Sime Darby Medical Centre in Subang Jaya yesterday.

He said doctors could not rely on readings such as the blood platelet count to determine if a dengue fever (DF) patient could develop DHF. And the subsiding fever in a DF patient after two to seven days should not be seen as a sign of recovery.

Dr Suresh said: "Doctors should check if the patient is still suffering from persistent vomiting, abdominal pain and lethargy.

"These could be warning signs that the patient might relapse into DHF, which could lead to sudden death."

He added that doctors treating dengue should consider how the patient felt.

In the first half of this year, 23,056 dengue infections were reported nationwide with 57 deaths.

During the same period last year, the figures were 18,894 cases and 39 deaths.

Commenting on the influenza A (H1N1) situation, he said the screening campaign would be stopped once the spread of the disease was minimised.

"The Health Ministry's goal in having the screening is to prevent a widespread outbreak, which would create social disruption."

Senior public health specialist (epidemiology) and head of the Selangor Vector Borne Disease Control Unit, Dr B. Venugopalan, said Selangor accounted for half of the national dengue figures.

Back to top