Dengue fever is an acute infectious disease caused by the Dengue virus transmitted by the Aedes mosquito. Although the disease is transmitted through the blood, breastfeeding women with dengue fever are also very worried about whether they can breastfeed if they have dengue fever?
1. How is dengue transmitted?
Dengue fever can spread rapidly in the community, even causing an epidemic. The vector of dengue fever is the black Aedes mosquito, with white spots on its body and legs, so it is often called the striped mosquito. They prefer to breed in secluded places that people do not often pay attention to.
In fact, the striped mosquito itself is capable of causing dengue fever when it is born. However, the common transmission cycle is that the mosquito bites a patient and sucks blood infected with the dengue virus. The virus then develops and multiplies in the mosquito's body for about a week and then passes it to the salivary glands. At this point, the mosquito has the ability to continue transmitting the virus into human blood and spread dengue fever when it bites healthy people.
Regarding the process of striped mosquitoes transmitting dengue fever in the environment, there are two mechanisms as follows:
Mosquitoes directly transmit the virus that causes the disease through saliva or bites to humans.
Mosquitoes carrying dengue virus transfer it to eggs and lay them in water. The eggs then hatch into larvae, which gradually molt into baby mosquitoes carrying the “innate” dengue virus. This generation then bites humans and spreads the disease in the community.
The possibility of a healthy person receiving blood from a dengue patient and then becoming infected is theoretically possible. However, this case never occurs in reality because a dengue patient who has lost blood cannot receive blood.
In addition, medicine has never recorded the risk of dengue fever transmission between people, through sharing needles or contact with blood in open wounds. In general, dengue fever is not transmitted through the respiratory tract, secretions or normal contact between sick people and healthy people, and there is no such thing as dengue fever being transmitted through sexual contact similar to the transmission route of HIV. Therefore, patients can be completely assured that killing mosquito larvae and not letting mosquitoes bite them is the simplest and most effective way to prevent dengue fever.
2. Can mothers with dengue fever breastfeed their children?
Anyone is at risk of contracting dengue fever, from infants and young children to adults, including pregnant and lactating women. Women who are breastfeeding are also quite sensitive because they are directly related to infants, so they often receive special attention.
Therefore, many breastfeeding mothers with dengue fever are very worried and wonder whether they should continue to breastfeed their children or not. There is also a belief that women with dengue fever should not breastfeed their babies because they can transmit the disease to their children through milk. In addition, some unofficial studies claim to have found the dengue virus in breast milk and suggest that this could be one of the potential transmission routes.
Regarding the issue of whether dengue fever can be breastfed, in fact, if a mother breastfeeds her child when she has dengue fever, she will not be able to transmit the disease to her baby. The reason is because the virus that causes dengue fever only exists in the blood, not in breast milk, so it cannot be transmitted from mother to child, and if it does, the risk of transmitting the disease to the baby is extremely low. In terms of correlation, it can be assessed that the health benefits of breastfeeding are much greater than the risk of dengue fever infection. Moreover, breast milk, especially colostrum, also contains antibodies that can fight the virus that causes the disease. Thanks to that, breastfed babies will always have a strengthened immune system to protect their health. Therefore, breastfeeding mothers with dengue fever, although they will be tired and have body aches, should still try to breastfeed their babies fully.
In older and stronger children, if the mother who is breastfeeding when she has dengue fever feels uneasy, or is too tired to produce enough milk, she can temporarily replace formula milk during the treatment period for a few days until the mother is completely recovered. In particular, paracetamol is both a medicine that helps reduce fever and relieve pain, and is considered quite safe because it only passes into breast milk in very small amounts, so it is often prescribed by doctors for treatment of female patients who are breastfeeding when they have dengue fever. Absolutely do not use aspirin or ibuprofen on your own because they can make the bleeding worse. Mothers should also work closely with their doctors to monitor symptoms and prescribe hospitalization when necessary to avoid dangerous complications of the disease.
In summary, dengue fever is a disease caused by the Aedes aegypti mosquito carrying the virus and transmitted to humans through the blood, not related to the respiratory tract or breast milk. Therefore, most experts believe that breastfeeding women with dengue fever can continue to breastfeed their babies as usual. However, it is necessary to pay attention to prevent the baby from also being infected with dengue fever by avoiding mosquito bites, sleeping under mosquito nets both morning and night, as well as spraying mosquito repellent products that are safe for children, killing mosquito larvae and cleaning the living environment.
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