Self-medication dilemma in dengue fever

Abstract

This paper focuses on the trends of self-medication practices in treating symptoms that may lead to fatal complications in dengue. As dengue is a viral infection with increasing incidence, decision regarding its treatment is mostly affected by public health believes and practices to self-treat the condition by different home remedies, over-the-counter (OTC) drugs or using outdated prescription drugs that proved beneficial in the past experience. Poverty, lack of education, and poor access to health facilities pave the way for making such decisions. Future complications can be averted by raising awareness, counseling the patients and dispensing of pharmaceuticals with strict monitoring.

Keywords

• Dengue
• Fever
• Self-medication
• Surveillance
• Control