Signs of distinguishing dengue and H1N1 flu

If the fever is high continuously, taking fever-reducing medicine only for a short time and high fever, the patient may have dengue fever. If the fever is accompanied by a sore throat, coughing is more likely to be H1N1 flu.

At the National Institute of Infectious and Tropical Diseases, about 650 patients visit each day, of which 200 are suspected of H1N1 flu, and the rest are mostly dengue fever.

Dr. Nguyen Van Kinh, Director of the Department said: " In the first day, it is difficult to distinguish these two diseases because of the common manifestations of fever. It is impossible to do PCR testing to classify H1N1 flu because currently only for testing. High-risk subjects, making blood formulas will also be difficult to classify platelet-induced hemorrhagic fever . "

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However, according to Dr. Kinh, if the fever is caused by dengue fever, it is often high fever immediately and continuously because the flu is often scattered and accompanied by sore throat, cough.

When taking Paracetamol to cool down, if it is dengue fever, it will only cool down in a short time, then continue with high fever and with the flu, the duration of cooling will be longer.

" With dengue patients, experienced doctors can detect the skin of patients with hyperemia more severely, pressing their hands to see the red halo clearly ," Dr. Kinh said.

Also according to Dr. Kinh, the disease is more easily distinguished on day 2,3.

With the flu, the second day the patient began to show symptoms of sore throat, upper respiratory tract infection. Severe cases may show chest pain, difficulty breathing.

In contrast, with dengue fever, the fever is high continuously for 2 to 7 days. From day 2 onwards, the patient has shown that bleeding is minimal. The following days, symptoms are more obvious. Some people may have root bleeding, nosebleeds, or bleeding under the skin. Women appear to have menstruation earlier than the normal cycle, the menstrual period lasts longer than usual. If you go to a medical facility, you can do a blood test to see how low your platelet count is.

Dr. Nguyen Hong Ha, Deputy Director of the National Institute of Infectious and Tropical Diseases also said that patients who have a fever often do two tests to screen the disease: rapid flu test and blood formula.

" If you do a quick test that is positive, the H1N1 epidemic will spread like it is now treated with Tamiflu. If you do a blood test, if you see lower platelets, it is dengue, " said Dr Ha.

If both ways are still not distinguishable from the disease, the doctor will appoint the patient to re-examine on the 3-4 day (there are conditions for 1-2 days of re-examination), then the symptoms are also clearer. If it is dengue, platelets will decrease, if the flu can complicate pneumonia (or the patient will recover after only 2-3 days).

" Whether or not the rapid influenza test can only determine is type A influenza, the accuracy rate is not high, so this test is only for the doctor's diagnosis. If the patient has a clinical manifestation of the flu obviously, will be treated with Tamiflu immediately, "said Dr Ha.