Even though the symptoms are similar, recognize the difference between dengue fever, typhoid and malaria

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta – Even though they both have symptoms of fever, there is a difference dengue fever dengue (DHF), typhoid, and malaria. Staff of the Tropical Infection Division of the Department of Internal Medicine, FKUI-RSCM, dr. Adityo Susilo, Sp.PD-KPTI, explained the difference between DHF and typhoid.

“This is quite difficult because the symptoms are the same as fever,” said Adityo.

He explained that DHF is a disease caused by dengue virus infection which is transmitted through the bite of Aedes aegypti and Aedes albopictus mosquitoes. Characteristics of these mosquitoes have white spots on the body. One of the key symptoms of DHF is a high fever that appears suddenly, then the patient also experiences severe headaches, heavy eyes, muscle aches, and weakness.

“This infection can also interfere with the digestive process in the stomach, so it is not uncommon for patients to also experience nausea, heartburn, so that the ability to eat and drink becomes very low,” said Adityo.

These symptoms appear during the initial phase, where the virus is very active, which generally lasts for three days.

“Uniquely, after the fever goes down, we actually enter a critical phase. This is because antibodies begin to form and are more destructive. The process of resistance becomes more intense and the risk of shock and bleeding will increase. This will last three days, but in some cases it can happen.” extend,” said Adityo. “After the end of the critical phase, the fever can come back but not as high as in the beginning. After that, we will enter the healing phase, of course the complaints will be better, the platelets will increase, and the condition will recover.”

Whereas typhus It is caused by the bacterium Salmonella typhi which is usually found in contaminated water or food. According to him, the symptoms of typhoid fever are not sudden like dengue, but appear gradually.

“The fever follows the pattern of stairs, where from day to day, the fever is getting higher,” said Adityo.

He said that one of the markers for typhoid fever was the reverse pattern. This means that the fever will be higher at night than in the morning or afternoon. Adityo said typhoid also has symptoms related to digestion. Not infrequently patients will complain of constipation or difficulty defecating. However, there are also those who actually experience diarrhea.

Meanwhile, malaria is a disease caused by the Plasmodium parasite
transmitted by the bite of the female Anopheles mosquito.

“Malaria has more distinctive symptoms. We know the triad of malaria which is the specific complaint of this disease,” said Adityo.

Meanwhile, the triad pattern malaria it is cold stagei.e. the phase of the patient shivering violently, hot stage or high fever phase, and sweating stage or the phase in which the fever begins to subside but the patient will be sweating profusely. In contrast to DHF, fever due to malaria will go down by itself even without medication.

Also read: Handling and How to Prevent Dengue Fever in Pregnant Women

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