If you get dengue fever once, can you get it again?
Can you get dengue again after suffering from it once? It is possible to get dengue more than once. At present there are 4 different strains of Dengue that are currently recognized. A patient can get dengue from two or more different strains of dengue. Hence a patient can suffer from dengue more than once.
When Dengue Strikes Twice:
When patients are infected with the dengue virus they can come down with dengue hemorrhagic fever and suffer massive internal bleeding and liver damage. Basically the virus causing dengue fever comes in four strains, and immunity to one seems to make infection by a second strain more dangerous. Death happens if this second time dengue two virus has infected the patient. The other strains are much less dangerous.
The first time that anyone suffers due to dengue, he develops immunity towards that strain of the virus. However the immunity wanes over time.The immune system makes the same mistake when battling repeated bouts of dengue fever, according to a new research.
Dengue infection, immunity and mortality:
Dengue infection follows development of antibodies which are not protective to the individual. In humans recovery from infection by one dengue virus provides lifelong immunity against that particular virus serotype. However this immunity confers only partial and transient protection against subsequent infection by the other three serotypes of the virus. Some develop dengue hemorrhagic fever after the initial fever declines — a more severe form of the illness that can cause organ damage, severe bleeding, dehydration and even death. The mortality rate for dengue fever is currently fewer than 1 of 100 people.
