Q. What is dengue?

The Dengue, or dengue fever, is an epidemic disease in some countries (for instance, in Brazil), and its most dangerous form is hemorrhagic dengue. It is cause through four different but related viruses, the reason that it is difficult for an already infected person to become immunized against the disease. The Dengue is prevalent in subtropical and tropical regions of Asia, Africa and South America and it is transmitted by the bite of the Aedes aegypti mosquito, a diurnal mosquito. The viral infection causes diverse symptoms similar to flu, like malaise, fever, myalgia (muscle pain); in hemorrhagic dengue high fever, without or with convulsions, and hemorrhages may take place leading to circulatory failure and death. There is no vaccine to cure dengue since there are four agent viruses and it is supposed that the severity of the disease is greater when the patient is already protected against one kind of virus and is infected by another. The best prophylactic process is to eliminate the vector mosquito.