Children Are More At Risk Of Experiencing Severe Conditions When Affected By DHF

Illustration of dengue fever or dengue fever in children. (Pexels/cottonbro studio)

JAKARTA - Dengue Hemorrhagic Fever (DHF) is still a disease that is very much considered in Indonesia. Every year, dengue cases continue to exist in large quantities, such as in 2025 to 22 September 2025, there are 115,138 cases of dengue nationally with 479 deaths.

This disease can generally attack anyone with various ages, including children. DHF can threaten all year under any circumstances.

"Dengue is a disease that can attack anyone regardless of age, where a person lives, or lifestyle and not only during the rainy season, but also threatening throughout the year," said Professor of the Department of Children's Health Sciences, Faculty of Medicine, University of Indonesia, Prof. Dr. dr. Sri Rezeki Hadinegoro, SpA(K), when met in South Jakarta, on Monday, September 29, 2025.

Although everyone must be aware of it, dengue fever must be more stringent in its supervision of children. This is because children affected by dengue fever are at higher risk of experiencing more severe conditions than adults.

One of the reasons is the difference in body fluid composition between children and adults. With less fluid composition, children are desperate to deal with severe dehydration during dengue.

If we lose more than 10 percent of the liquid, adults can still survive. But for children, that already includes severe dehydration," he added.

The condition of fluid loss in children can make blood thicker. This can inhibit blood flow and reduce the supply of incidence throughout the body.

"Oxygen is one of our lives. If it decreases, children can collapse, are not aware, even have seizures," he said.

In addition, another thing that is a challenge to face dengue fever in children is their ability which is still difficult to reveal the disorders in the body they feel. They often do not feel sick, hide, or don't know how to discuss with their surroundings so that early detection can be difficult and conditions are getting worse.