Dengue fever also known as breakbone fever, is an infectious disease caused by the dengue virus. Symptoms include fever, headache, muscle and joint pains, and a characteristic morbilliform skin rash. In some cases the disease develops to the life threatening dengue hemorrhagic fever (bleeding, low levels of blood platelets and blood plasma leakage) and dengue shock syndrome (circulatory failure). Dengue is transmitted by species of mosquitoes.
Last year in the months of June and August, dengue virus caused a havoc in India. Although authorities did not acknowledge the fact initially, but with increasing number of deaths and hospitalizations, they finally opened their eyes. Reports in leading newspapers confirm more than 2000 cases in major Indian cities like Delhi. Karnataka too had its fare share of Dengue patients with more than 400 cases. Infact the severity can be well gauged as a helpline was launched by health minister only for dengue related cases. Going by the prediction of rains in the coming months, Dengue may be just on the horizon to cause havoc this year too.
Role of Blood banks:
Generally platelets are transfused to patients where platelet count falls below a minimum that usually varies on the discretion of the treating doctor. Blood banks need to gear up their resources and practices in testing times to meet this challenge. The number of units of platelets that are required from random donors is just too overwhelming. The need is to go ahead with Single Donor Platelet Apheresis (SDP). Apheresis can provide relief to several patients who otherwise may not be able to arrange for so many units of blood. Maybe we just have a short window to stay prepared. It’s time to organize plenty of blood donation drives and also start planning for apheresis donations.
Are we on the way to find a cure for Dengue? Here is a news story of a recent medical research.
Duke University researchers have found that cells that play a role in triggering a response to bacteria and pathogens could also have a role in attacking dengue fever, a tropical disease for which there is no vaccine.
A Duke research team at the Duke-NUS Graduate Medical School in Singapore studied mast cells in mice. Mast cells play a role in allergic and inflammatory events in the body. Researchers found that these cells can also trigger a response to a virus delivered by a mosquito bite.
“It appears the mast cells are activated and call immune system cells to the skin where they clear infection, which limits the spread of infection in the host,” lead researcher Ashley St. John, a research fellow with Duke-NUS in the Program in Emerging Infectious Diseases and the Duke Department of Pathology in Durham, North Carolina, said in a statement.
Dengue fever is a virus that leads to fever, headache and muscle and joint pain. Severe cases can lead to the more serious and potentially fatal dengue hemorrhagic fever.
Duke researchers found that compared to mice with normal levels of mast cells, mice lacking mast cells had more of the virus in their lymph nodes and increased infection after measured injection with a small dose of dengue virus. The mast cells produce chemokines, a protein that can help bring some of the “killer cells” that target the virus.
Soman Abraham, professor of pathology and a mast cell expert who also works in Duke’s Program in Emerging Infectious Diseases, said in a statement that the finding was important because there are no vaccines or effective therapies for dengue fever. Also, because mast cells are involved in events such as airway restriction during an asthma attack, the finding could also lead to applications in viral infections of the lung, airways and sinuses.
The research was supported by the Duke-NUS Graduate Medical School with additional funding from the National Institutes of Health.