Denggi: How much do we really know?

My youngest son was down with fever just a week after he returned from Sarawak. Thinking it was a simple fever created by the activity of white blood corpuscles overcoming bacteria or some foreign body in the body, we did not do anything but waited for it to subside. However, it did not and instead rose higher. The next thing we resorted to was panadol. Two tablets, four tablets and then six tablets did not bring the desired improvement. So, the clinic was the next stop.

A gun-like instrument, which was a thermometer, was pointed at the forehead of my son as we were at the door. Positively high was the fever and so a mask was given as they were on the look-out for H1N1. Wearing the mask, he went in and after a blood test, he was suspected to have denggi with the platlet count a little bit low. Asked to return the next day, he was again given a blood test with the platlet level going down. For confirmation of denggi he was asked to report to the emergency section of the Sungai Petani Sultan Abdul Halim Hospital where they made a second blood test and warded him as he had denggi petechia hemorrhage which looks very much like rashes. In fact, the non-medical people would usually say those are rashes. However, rashes is something else as it is actually an allegic reaction.

As word spread that my son had denggi, friends from all over came with various ways to tackle denggi. From my elder son's experience, it is important to drink a lot of fluid. This time, friends told me to give the patient a lot of watermelon juice to drink. Well, it could be another way of administering lot of water in a tasty way. Then again, it could be there is something in watermelon which helps to solve the decreasing platlet' problem. Well, no matter how it could solve the problem, who said medicine has to be difficult to take? Then there was this expensive therapy with two or three frogs' meat low-heated with about four or five of the short variety of bitter-gourd. Unfortunately, frog meat is not easily available. One restaurant owner had a few frozen frogs which he would only sell as a dish in a meal taken at his restaurant. Then, there was the papaya leaf boiled in a little water which everyone found difficult to drink despite adding some honey to it at serving time. I finally had to be the one to drink all of it. However, one most acceptable suggestion was coconut water, a favourite drink of mine. The friend even took the trouble to pluck some from her tree and brought them to my house. Thank God for such a wonderful friend. She is indeed god-sent.

Well, looks like there are many types of food which can help alleviate the sickness. And the beautiful part about taking on any of the suggested therapies is that we still can continue taking whatever medicine the hospital is giving the patient. Of course, we could also discuss with our doctors to see whether there could be anything in the suggested food which could counteract against the medicines given.

When it comes to denggi, a patient ought to be hospitalised so that medical staff can monitor the platlet count and ensure sufficient fluid is available to the body by dripping normal saline into the body. And should the platlet count drop too low, then blood infusion is necessary to maintain the platlet level, failing which the patient is in danger. That is the reason a denggi patient must be hospitalised.

The signal that the patient is recovering is when the platlet count improves. Once that is achieved, the patient is on the road to recovery.

Thus, it is through my son's experiences that I learned about denggi and the various ways to help the patient on the road to recovery. Through this, it is so obvious that there is still so much to learn; we are never too good to become better and life has still so much to live.