The monsoon season always brings along a number of unexpected vectors with it, which results in unwanted mosquito-borne diseases. While the most common of them are malaria, dengue, chikungunya and zika, the rise in the former two diseases is a matter of worry for a number of people and health officials, across the world.
While the vector-borne diseases can prove fatal to life, there are various bacterial diseases, such as typhoid and cholera, which may cause equal worry. However, to understand which one of typhoid or dengue is more dangerous, we need to understand both the diseases.
Dengue fever is a mosquito-borne viral disease, which results in high fevers with headaches and severe muscle and joint pains. It is caused by four closely related viruses and is transmitted from an infected person to a healthy person through Aedes aegypti and Aedes albopictus mosquitoes. There is no human-to-human dengue fever transmission. Once a mosquito is infected, it remains infected for its life span.
The dengue viruses belong to the Flaviviridae family and have an RNA strand as its genetic makeup. There are five dengue virus types (DENV-1, DENV-2, DENV-3, DENV-4, and recently, DENV-5). All five dengue serotypes are closely related.
To treat dengue, one can take acetaminophen (Tylenol), codeine, or other agents that are not NSAIDs. However, dengue is usually self-limited and adequate hydration and pain control can help the person through the infection.
Talking about the second disease, typhoid fever is an acute febrile illness that is caused by the bacterium Salmonella typhi. Typhoid spreads when people ingest contaminated food or water. To treat typhoid, one needs to take antibiotics. Ciprofloxacin (Cipro) is the most frequently used drug in the US, whereas Ampicillin (Omnipen, Polycillin, Principen) and trimethoprim (Bactrim, Septra) are frequently prescribed antibiotics.
To answer if typhoid is more dangerous than dengue, it is necessary to understand that it depends on the severity of the disease and the load of virus OR any pathogen like Typhoid. While both the diseases are curable, they can turn dangerous if the detection and diagnosis is not done on time.
While Typhoid is endemic and keeps occurring throughout the year, Dengue is mostly seasonal. Both the diseases are curable if diagnosed in time and receive proper treatment. However, they can become life-threatening, if a person has low immunity or another associated illness.
Comments
0 comment