Dengue Fever And Its Prevalence In The Philippines

04/28/2017 PhilLife Leave a comment

Recently I was having a casual conversation with a friend. It was a stock standard conversation, we talked about all the usual things like work and family life. Then she mentioned she had been to the hospital that morning to visit a friend. He had been struck down by dengue fever, so he was administered to the hospital for treatment.

As I am not native to the country, I was not familiar with the extent of the issue at the time. Though, it turns out the spread of dengue in the Philippines has caused some serious concerns. In 2015 there were over 200,000 reported cases of dengue fever, and it seems to be on the rise. There is at present no vaccine to prevent the transmission of this disease, the only solution, therefore, is to take precautions against the problem.

Dengue is caused by a family of viruses transmitted by the bite of striped Aedes aegypti mosquitoes. These mosquitoes multiply during rainy weather, but they can breed in any water-filled container the entire year-round. One mosquito bite is enough to cause the disease. And Dengue is an acute illness that typically follows a course of several painful symptoms and discomfort.

Once a person is bitten by the mosquito carrying the virus, the period for the development of the disease ranges from 5 to 8 days, but it can also happen over a period of 2 weeks. The signs of dengue start to appear in stages. In the beginning, these are in the form of chills, headache, pain in eyes, loss of appetite and a general feeling of uneasiness. There may be the pain in lower back.

The initial symptoms are followed by hurting pain in legs and joints. The body temperature can rise to 104 F(40 C), and heart rate along with blood pressure can decrease severely. Eyes can become reddened, and a flushing rash comes over the face and then disappears. Even the lymph nodes in neck and groin can become swollen.

The high fever and other signs of dengue as mentioned above last for a few days. This is typically proceeded by a sudden drop in body temperature – this is called defervescence. There is profuse sweating at this stage. Once again there is a small period of normal temperature, then the person may begin to feel better, but without any ongoing treatment, this is just temporary. Within a day or two, there is another rise in temperature, in which characteristic itchy rashes start to appear on the body. Then there is more fever which spreads to extremities to affect the whole body. The palms of hand and the feet can get swollen.

This fever is diagnosed when the patient complains of typical symptoms like a headache, eye redness, and heaviness, nausea, severe muscle ache and rashes. If someone has returned from an area where dengue fever had spread epidemically, he or she should consult a doctor even if the symptoms appear mild.

In many cases, it is not easy to diagnose dengue fever as its symptoms overlap with those of many other viral problems like West Nile virus.

Due to many painful symptoms affecting the body, the treatment for dengue is a long process; but as this is caused by a virus, there is no specific antibiotic to kill it. Hence the treatment largely comprises providing relief from the symptoms and signs of this fever. Plenty of rest and adequate hydration are prescribed.

To prevent the spread of dengue fever and being affected by its irksome and rather dangerous symptoms, it is important to safeguard your surroundings and keep them free of mosquitoes. Professionally provided treatments help here. Consult a pest control service in your area to take the measures.

There are no antiviral drugs to treat dengue. However, vaccines for Treatment are intended for maintaining proper fluid balance in the body and granting relief from the symptoms. Oral or intravenous rehydration is mostly used to sustain proper fluid balance. Blood transfusion is mostly prescribed to stabilize hematocrit.

There are no confirmed vaccines for dengue. However, work is in progress on a vaccine and for medications that target the dengue virus directly. Paracetamol is prescribed to control fever and reduce discomfort.

Prevention is sought by decreasing mosquito populace by eliminating the breeding ground and using pesticides and limiting vulnerability to bites using mosquito repellents and protective clothing.

Food

My New Love Affair With Fresh Buko Juice

04/26/2017 PhilLife Leave a comment

This may come as a surprise to a lot of you, but I have to admit, up until about 6 months ago I had never tried actual buko juice fresh from a coconut.

When I was younger, I would always be given cans of coconut water to take to school with me. Sadly, it tasted disgusting, it was too bitter for me to even try to swallow. It tasted more like dirty water out of a puddle as opposed to fresh buko juice. So a lot of the time I would throw it out after 1 sip, maybe 2 if I was feeling adventurous.

After my early buko juice experiences, I had assumed that it just wasn’t for me; so I avoided it in my later years. Late last year I was on an island hopping tour out amongst the beautiful Philippine islands. We stopped at one island where they were selling coconuts for only a few pesos, so I couldn’t turn it down. After trying the fresh buko juice, my whole attitude completely changed. Fresh coconut is in a whole new league compared to the manufactured coconut water.

After that eye-opening experience, buko juice became my default drink of choice when dining out. I didn’t care how impractical dealing with a entire coconut at a dining table was; the nutritious, delicious drink made it worth the effort.

After doing some reading, I also found that fresh buko juice also has some major health benefits. Researchers have found that the fresh juice has the same level of performance as major sports drink companies when it comes to keeping athletes hydrated. The buko juice also has many other major health benefits; it is able to assist in lowering your cholesterol levels and also bring down your blood pressure. It’s so rare to find delicious drinks which aren’t loaded with sugar and also provide these as well as many other health benefits.

So do not hesitate to help support your local farmers and stock up on the fresh coconuts. Enjoy some fresh buko juice as a treat and take part in an essential part of Philippine culture.

Destination

Is Kawasan Falls A Lost Cause?

04/16/2017 PhilLife Leave a comment

After an hour long motorbike ride through the mountains of Cebu, we were finally at Kawasan falls. My bottom had gone completely numb which amplified my joy of finally reaching our destination. We were dropped off at a car park surrounded by what looked like restaurants or some sort of convenience stores, which caught me by surprise. I had expected Kawasan falls to be a lot more isolated than that.

After chatting with the locals we found out that to get to the falls we needed to walk down a track behind the carpark. We were told that it’s a long walk to get to the falls (it was) so we began walking immediately; by that time it was late afternoon so we wanted to enjoy the falls before it was dark.

The walk along the track was heavenly. After being stuck on the back of that motorbike for so long I really appreciated being able to stretch my legs and enjoy the scenery. Along the side of the track was a stream flowing from the falls. The water was the bluest water I think I have ever seen. It almost didn’t look natural, even up close it still looked extremely blue.

After a long walk along the track, we passed what looked like a small power station operating off the water from the falls. Then, a short way up the track was our destination, Kawasan falls. The unusual part about it was the first thing I saw was not the beautiful scenic waterfall. This is because somebody felt it was necessary to build a hotel right on the falls. Somehow they managed to get approval to develop one of Cebu’s major tourist attractions into a commercial enterprise.

The onslaught of young men trying to sell us stuff on our arrival was overwhelming. The second we walked into the area we were surrounded by young men trying to sell us stuff. I was also being told we had to pay to put our belongings somewhere. I had a waiter asking us what food and drinks we wanted. Another guy was trying to get us to pay for a raft ride. It was just chaos, the complete opposite of what I had hoped for.

It made me feel depressed; I had hoped for a serene environment where I could relax away from city life for a while. But somehow they still managed to transform the serene environment into a method of funneling money out of its visitors. They had developed the entire shoreline of the falls so they almost had a monopoly on the place. If you wanted to put your belongings somewhere you had to pay them to use a table.

I was so frustrated by the situation, I was frantically thinking of how to get out of having to pay for a table to store our belongings. This is when I saw a small bit of land on the far side of the falls where there was no seating in place. It turns out this land, although only meters wide is the only spot around the falls not owned by the hotel.

I immediately pushed through the people trying to sell us a table and got clear of the hotel. I had found my way out of being coerced into paying ridiculous amounts of money just to enjoy the waterfall. Once we sorted out a spot to store our belongings the rest of our experience was really nice. We occasionally had a waiter venture over to us trying to sell us something but besides that, we were now carefree enjoying the beautiful Kawasan falls.

It still frustrates me to think a hotel was allowed to develop on a site like Kawasan falls. I feel like such a beautiful landmark should be left in untouched. Developing the site really takes away from the experience; I think a lot of visitors, like me, are there to relax not waste money on ridiculous things like paying for a table to sit on or paying to sit on a log raft.

I think that will be my first and last visit to Kawasan falls. Although it is a beautiful destination ruined by its commercialisation. The Philippines is full of plenty of other destinations waiting to be explored.

So I won’t dwell on the disappointment of my visit, I’m now onto thinking about what’s next?

Destination

Manila To Baguio, A Bus Ride To Remember

04/07/2017 PhilLife Leave a comment

My seat is reclined back as far as it will go. My shoes are removed and my fingers are already covered in a deep layer of cheesy Cheeto dust. I’m ready for what is going to be a 5 hour plus bus ride through the beautiful mountains of northern Luzon.

We were going to Baguio, the infamous mountain city many Filipinos travel to in order to escape the humidity regularly gracing the rest of the country. It was an easy decision to take the express bus over the conventional bus. For a little extra than the normal bus, the express bus offers complimentary drinks, snacks, and newspaper, a significantly shorter travel time and comfortable reclining seating.

The first half of the journey consisted of passing one lone volcano, which was exciting for a moment. Unfortunately, this was followed by hours of driving through relatively flat farmland. I tried to resort to eating to kill some time, but I had already eaten most of my food before we had left the bus terminal. The wifi on the bus was so slow that I just gave up on it. I would rather relax without using wifi than endure the emotional roller coaster that wifi was triggering inside of me. So I brushed the crumbs off my chest and attempted to sleep for the rest of the journey.

We eventually made it to the base of the mountain, which is when things got interesting. The bus had been driving fast up until that point, once reaching the mountains nothing changed. The driver seemed unphased by the fact that we were now on winding roads high up in the mountains.

The bus was constantly shaking heavily, while the passengers were clinging onto their seats to hold themselves still. Eventually the liquids I consumed at the bus terminal decided this was a good time to leave my body. The bus was shaking everywhere as the driver sped through the winding mountain road. I had to somehow make it to the cr on the bus without being thrown off my feet by the force of the speeding bus.

After waiting for a while, the bus finally hit a short straight stretch of road. I immediately stood up and dashed for the cr before the bus made it to the next corner. Once I got inside I realized using the cr was not going to be as easy as I thought. The toilet and most of its surroundings were covered in urine, so I did myself and those after me a favour and cleaned the cr before using it. Using a cr while the vehicle it resides in is powering around corners at high speeds is not an easy task. Though in the end, I made it back to my seat unscathed, mission accomplished.

A short time later the bus arrived in Baguio after about 5 hours of driving. The difference in the general atmosphere of the place was almost immediately apparent. The city is uncrowded and peaceful when compared to Metro Manila. The city is also surrounded by beautiful scenery, most of the major hotels overlook the city, giving guests nice views to fall asleep and wake up to.

I still look forward to the next time I can visit, it really is a beautiful city. The express bus to Baguio should definitely be the priority for anyone wanting to travel to Baguio. The extra fee is quite insignificant when you consider how much quicker the travel time is