“Common cold” or Dengue??

New Delhi, Winter comes and you don’t feel like getting up from bed for hours. Your nose is runny, head feels like a bass drum, joints ache and your throat so sore as though someone used it like a grater overnight. But that’s ok, there’s nothing to worry about! You know it’s just a common cold and it will go away on its own in a few days. There’s anyways not much you can do other than treat the symptoms and let the cold run its course. But as days go by, you see turning worse than before, it’s bad enough to make your days seem longer, tiring and challenging and despite your best efforts to get rid of it for a week, it doesn’t leave you.

Seeing the alarming number of 600 and more dengue cases in this season itself, you mustn’t delay in seeking urgent medical advice to save yourself from the fast growing vector borne infection.

Though it’s believed that the dengue spreading aedes aegypti mosquito gets killed in the cold, this time even the onset of winters could not spare people from the mosquito bites spreading a whole spectrum of viral diseases. A steep rise in the number of cases is being seen everyday with Sunday alone reporting over 30 cases in the Capital. Cities like Chandigarh and Patiala too reported cases. With blood banks and platelet separator machines working round the clock, it is only an indicator of how big the problem actually is.

As Delhi goes on high alert to fight these cases, larger in number than last year, citizens too should be alert! Next time you feel sick, get your blood test and platelet count checked (IgM). You might be confusing the symptoms of dengue fever with the “common cold”.