DENGUE is no longer a scare; it has become an urban epidemic; stacking hospitals with patients beyond full capacity and driving the stricken to desperation and panic for lack of room vacancy.
The affected areas have been declared by the government as “zone of national calamity.”
TIME came out with statistics that of the 10 million people afflicted with dengue worldwide, 67 percent comes from Asia, with the Philippines leading, and so is Iloilo.
At least, we have more mosquitoes than the rest of the world.
Dengue is a virus transmitted by only one minimal animal…so tiny, you call it an Insik…I mean, insect – the Aedes aegypti mosquito. And it is only the female that “bites” and is a “day biter.”
I wonder why they can it a “mosquito bite” when mosquitoes don’t have teeth as bites are usually associated with teeth and fangs. They have this sharp proboscis which they sting you with, drawing blood so softly you don’t even feel it…until you reach the hospital and the haggard nurse on duty gives you an ECG or an enema just to fondle your balls.
There is no cure for dengue…save for early detection and if positive, medical treatment. Of course, patients who are negative for dengue or whose platelet count is not at a critical level are not admitted by the hospital (because they have no rooms available anyway) but are referred to the barangay herbolario…who has assorted concoctions to raise your red blood corpuscles…Boiled papaya leaves; kamote leaves; babana; your mother-in-law’s foot; chewing betel nut; red wine. Ask your old maid…she may have some formula of her own.
Dengue has an incubation period of seven days…and when you are “bite-ten” or “stung” by the female within four to five days the dengue symptoms manifest itself: headache, fever, rashes, weariness, general ill feeling…and what is most important is for you to have medical intervention to find out whether you are negative or positive for dengue…then strangely one to two days later, the symptoms will disappear….and there will be plasma overflow or blood coming out of you…it may be too late or perhaps transfusion to increase your platelet count or prayer can save you. Who knows?
And dengue, being sourced from a female, is not a respecter of age nor gender; academic qualification nor political affiliation; military rank or police training. Once bitten by the female, it is difficult to escape…as every under-the-saya will agree. And sadly, there are many deaths.
So prevention is the also a relief from the onslaught of dengue. Since the principal perpetrator is a female “mosquito”…, maybe it’s about time we soften a bit our attitude towards the female specie. They are very dengue…dangerous pala.
We should treat the female with honor, respect and love…and always keep a safe distance. Remember, it takes only one bite…and you’re dengued…dead.
Let us give her living space to reconsider…maybe bite someone else or only those 90 years of age, at least, you will be doing them a favor. If only the mosquito can understand.
Do not forget that the female is by nature good; otherwise, God would not have created her. However, some women are good-for-nothing.
And since the female Aedes mosquito is a “day-biter”, from now, on, we should go home only after dark…past midnight…never at dawn or day break because it is already light and they can see you. And with the amount of alcohol inside you, you can’t outrun them.
In my inebriated studies, I discovered that the female Aedes mosquito does not like alcohol. They are turned off by the smell of alcohol. Come to think of it, so does your wife. Well, if alcohol will make your wife go away…probably, so would a mosquito.
This explains why alcohol and other disinfectants are used in hospitals; restaurants and other public places. However, if, despite the rubbing alcohol, there are still mosquitoes around, do not worry. They are male mosquitoes; they are not dengue carriers; they only came to drink. They are drunkees…not dengue.
Surprisingly, people who drink don’t get dengue. Look at the hospital charts…there isn’t a drunkard with dengue there. For the simple reason that the female Aedes mosquito doesn’t like the smell of alcohol and flees upon the slightest whiff of Tanduay, brandy, Red Horse; whiskey; whatever poison you pour down your throat./PN
