With heavy rain and monsoon season coming, the risk of dengue is very high as water collects at many different spots. These spots are the perfect spot for mosquitoes to breed.
Dengue fever is a viral disease spread by mosquitoes. Extreme fever, rash, muscular ache, and joint pain are all symptoms of dengue.
Extreme dengue fever may cause life-threatening bleeding, low blood pressure, and even death. In medical terms, this condition is known as hemorrhagic fever.
One of the best strategies to combat dengue is to protect yourself from mosquito bites. First of all, let’s take a look at the symptoms of dengue.
Dengue symptoms
Dengue symptoms can show between 4 to 6 days after infection and will last up to 10 days. The symptoms of dengue are:
- High fever
- extreme headaches
- joint and muscle pain
- fatigue
- nausea
- vomiting
- skin rashes
- pain behind the eyes
If you have any of these symptoms, you may be infected with dengue. Make sure you seek help from the nearest hospital before it gets any worse!
The easiest way to fight against the disease is to make the area around your house safe from them. Let’s look at what you can do to prevent dengue at home.
4 Tips to prevent dengue
1. Make sure there are no mosquitoes breeding grounds
After laying their eggs in standing water, Aedes mosquitoes only need seven to 10 days to become adult females and males. If you don’t want to risk contracting dengue at home, the best thing you can do is eliminate mosquito breeding grounds.
Make sure that your house does not have any stagnant water or cover it with fine mesh. Any containers, vases, bottles, pet dishes, drainage areas, and gutters can all be places for mosquitoes to breed.
It is important to regularly clean them to prevent breeding from happening.
2. Protect your skin from mosquitoes
Wearing proper clothing can go a long way in protecting yourself against mosquito bites. Long sleeves can help maximize the protection of your skin.
Not only that, but you can also spray some mosquito repellent on your clothing. Just make sure that the ingredients are safe for the skin before spraying them on.
At night, you can use a mosquito net when you are sleeping to prevent pesky insects from sucking up your blood.
Picture: BERNAMA
3. Keep windows and doors closed
Keeping your windows and doors closed as much as possible is a good option to prevent mosquitoes from coming into your house.
However, if it gets hot inside you might want to air your house out right? So another thing that you can use is insect screens. You can place them easily on your windows. This will let air into your house whilst keeping mosquitoes out!
4. Minimise exposure and stay away from dengue-prone areas
Since, Malaysia is characterized as having a tropical, humid environment, this makes it a mosquito paradise. Catching dengue fever at home is not a given.
Avoid going to areas that can be potential breeding places for mosquitoes such as construction sites, ponds, marshes, and swamps. If you need to go out, bring mosquito repellent along on your journey.
