Hello Doctor, I am 33 year old male and was having severe body pain and fever (102 F) and I was advised to take the dengue NS1 antigen test on the very first day of fever and the results came positive for that and the rest of dengue IgG & IgM test were negative. So the prescribed tablets were correct and meftal and was advised to take the CBC test for few days and the results were like 3-7-17: 1.8 L, 4th: 1.5L, 5th: 1.5L, 7th: 1.0 L So why is that sudden decrease in platelet count? And is there anything like if you lose energy by walking or climbing the platelet count decreases?

Dr. Surya JagadeeshInternal Medicine Specialistyrs exp

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Good Evening Mr. lybrate-user I see you are a keen observer of facts, which I every much like as a trait in my patients. Let me start by telling you, I am very much in touch with the disease itself as I get around 20-25 dengue patients daily. A little info to you, before I get to your question, Dengue is transmitted by Aedes aegypti mosquito, also know and called as" tiger mosquito", dengue has 4 types mainly D1, D2,D3, D4.let me assure inspite of all the negativity surrounding the disease, it's relatively a symptomatic disease which lasts around 10-15 days with varying symptoms such as headache, joint ache, generalized weakness, unable to eat food, unable to sleep or get up. Usually before the fever sets in, it takes nearly 2 weeks for the disease to it, as in. The fever you are having now is a result of infection which occurred two weeks back. I'm sorry Mr. Milijo, if all these facts are a bit descriptive to you. I'm trying as much as possible to let you know, in little time as possible. Now, let's skip all that part and come back to your question" why does the platelet count drop" 1) in the starting 4-5 days, as you might have seen, the White blood cells (wbc) usually drops to 1.6k to 2.8k,this is the time in which the body is fighting actively against the infection 2) starting from the 5th day onwards, to the eighth day is when the platelet count starts dropping. 3) first let me tell you the importance of platelet counts, it acts as a blood thickener and prevents blood loss in case of injuries or in vitro as such. 4) the reason platelet drops, is due to the reason that the viral particles post the infection tend to destroy the platelets 5) the platelets which get destroyed, tend to recover eventually after the eighth day. there is much to discuss in such short duration. It would be beneficial to you, if you could get in touch with me. Cheers to your Health 

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