Dengue

A dengue test is used for people who have symptoms of dengue fever and they also have a travel history to places where dengue infections are common. A dengue test helps your doctor in ruling out if you have been infected with the virus or not.

What Are the Uses of a Dengue Test?

The symptoms of the dengue fever are often confused with chikungunya, malaria, typhoid and zika virus. So a dengue test can help make sure if you are infected by dengue virus or not.

When Should I Get a Dengue Test?

Your doctor will prescribe you with a dengue fever test if you are showing symptoms of dengue fever and you have a travel history to an area where dengue infections are common.

Following are the symptoms of dengue fever:

• High grade fever
• Vomiting
• Nausea
• Severe headache
• Pain in the joints
• Muscle pain
• Swollen glands
• Rashes on face

When you are exposed to dengue there is a high chance that you may get DHF which is Dengue Hemorrhagic Fever, this type of dengue fever can be life threatening. The symptoms of this kind of dengue fever look like:

• Unstoppable vomiting
• Restlessness
• Bleeding gums and nose
• Severe abdominal pain
• Shortness of breath
• Bleeding under the skin
• Clammy or cold skin
• Bloody stool or urine

What Are the Requirements of a Dengue Test?

A blood sample drawn from a vein in your arm is required for dengue fever test.

Dengue Test Procedure

• After you reach a health care center, a phlebotomist will clean a spot on your arm with an alcohol swab, this is done to disinfect your skin so that no infections are caused.
• Then a sterile needle will be used to draw some blood from your vein, which will then be collected in a vial or test tube. You might feel a stinging pain when the needle goes in and out of your skin.
• A bandage will then be applied to the puncture site. The entire process of this test hardly takes 5 to 7 minutes.
• The collected sample will then be sent to the lab which will give out results in a day or two.

Dengue Test Report and Results Interpretation

A negative dengue test result means that you are not infected with dengue virus. A positive dengue test result means that you are infected with dengue virus. There are no medications to treat dengue fever so your doctor will ask you to stay as hydrated and take rest as much as possible and take over the counter medications to relieve aches.

In case you are having symptoms of DHF (dengue hemorrhagic fever) then you should get yourself admitted to a hospital, so that you can be properly taken care of.