[Shalini]

BANGALORE'S DEADLIEST DISEASE's DENGUE FEVER & VIRAL FEVER

It starts with a soar throat, severe cold and cough. Then there is fever accompanied by body ache that makes one fatigued for at least three days. The symptoms, typical of viral fever, has been doing the rounds in the city.

Though there are no statistics, doctors quote a 10-15% increase in the patients' list, particularly among schoolchildren. Consultant physician Dr B Ramana Rao says the fever season is back with the drop in day temperatures.

According Rao, the viral fever is a condition where a virus causes various problems including an increase in body temperature, cold, shivering, fatigue, vomiting, nausea and body ache. It can affect anybody and any age group.

"Children get affected by it faster when they sit with class mates who have the disease. It is therefore important for teachers to identify such children and advise them rest at home," he said.

Majority cases are not dangerous and are self-limited. Yet some can progress rapidly leading to death. The virus is present in the atmosphere and can spread easily through air.

When the virus enters the body, it multiplies and causes problems like soar throat, cough. Soon fatigue shows up. This is aggregated by fever and body ache, says Dr Rao. On normal circumstances the infection persist for about a week and disappears but in rare cases it can even affect vital organs. Different virus affect different body organ system.

Worse, since virus has several strains, it's difficult and expensive to identify the exact strain. So it is with the clinical observation that doctors decide whether it is viral infection or not. That's why, self-medication should be avoided.

The remedy: Treatment of viral fever is purely symptomatic. Medicines, mostly antibiotics and anti-inflammatory, are given to lower temperature and relieve body aches. Bed rest and adequate fluid intake is advised.

Bangalore has just recently attacked by viral fever. due the heavy rain in bangalore, & also due to overflowing of drainage basins every-where. beware of it bangloreans, i just 2 days before hered this news in one of the kannada channels. now even im getting afraid of this.