For most people who have only lived in the US or visited Europe or other developed countries it's one of things you might have heard of or maybe not.
My wife came down with it last weekend and I've been doing some reading and thinking.
It began with the nightly phone call, my wife and kids are on the other side of the world for summer vacation.
Ms. BN: "I think I have malaria"
Ban Nock:, "why do you say that?"
(knowing full well that there are just about no cases for the past ten years in the capital city she is in. Used to be endemic when she grew up there)
Ms. BN: I've had a horrible fever for two nights, and I'm freezing, and my bones ache, (little alarms go off in my head over that one) and my head aches, and my eyes itch.
Ban Nock: Sweetheart you have dengue.
Ms. BN: "what's that?"
More below the pile of twisted orange mosquito larvae.
I had dengue once a long time ago. Once you've had it you kind of know what it's like.
I checked into a cheap short time hotel in Bangkok and paid for two nights telling reception I was probably going to be sleeping for a couple of days. I knew I had something, just didn't know what. I usually don't pay for air conditioned hotels, and a short time place is cheap. Over by Soi Nana on Sukhumvit.
With those light blocking drapes and the drone of the ineffectual stale AC, I lost sense of time. I do remember turning off the AC when the fever chills came and later chugging an entire litre of water. Came out of it after two days but felt pretty bad for a week. Lazy and tired for a month.
I've never heard of another disease nicknamed Break-bone fever, and I've never heard of another one that makes the bones ache like that. It's a virus, there is no treatment.
We used to have the disease in southern parts of the US, modern mosquito eradication after WW II pretty much eliminated it. Now it's staging a small but maybe irreversible come back. Geneticists say the strain they have in Key West is indigenous. Other cases are more likely from a traveler coming here while the disease is in the contagious stage, getting bit by a mozzie, that goes on to bite another human.
That's the transmission cycle, no alternate host or anything, person/mosquito/person.
From Radio Free Asia today.
The World Health Organization said this week that infections had reached the level of an epidemic alert, and last week the organizationâs representative in Laos Li Yungguo warned that Laos could face âthe worst dengue epidemic in its history.â
http://www.rfa.org/...
Infection rates are ten times what they were last year at this time. And last year the hospitals filled.
As alarming as that sounds most people don't even come close to death from dengue. There are four varieties, and I guess the first time you get it you have symptoms much as my wife has had. A pretty bad fever, goes away in a couple days, other symtoms gone in a week, feeling of lost energy for a month. The second and third times you get it are supposed to be more severe.
There's also a strange turn the disease sometimes takes where after your symptoms are gone for a day it comes back with an ungodly vengeance. All the capillaries of the body become "leaky" not holding fluids and people die. One site I read gave mortality rates of between 6% and 30% for those who develop the dangerous dengue. It's called Dengue hemorrhagic fever, or dhf. Risk factors for getting DHF are having had the virus before, and being younger than 12.
I've asked four or five people if they've ever heard of the disease over the past week. The two people who very much did know of the disease were older guys from Mexico. I think it's not unheard of in Mexico especially in the south.
Singapore, Burma, Thailand, and Malasia, are also seeing increased rates of dengue this year.
I looked on the net for a photo of overflowing hospital wards in Laos. Of course there are hardly any news accounts let alone photos. Rather than more of other peoples pics I figured I'd toss in one of my own. I forgot to mention, dengue isn't a disease of the forests the way malaria is. Cities are mostly where people get it.
Emergency Entrance to the main hospital in Vientiane Laos. I usually have better luck there than at the "foreigners clinic" on the other side of the building. I think they do fairly good work, best part is that when you are done you don't lose your house to medical bills.
Lastly some music.
Before the Khmer Rouge took over Cambodia there was a rock scene in the captital Phnom Penh. One particular musician recorded her music which reflected influences of American surfer guitar and the psychedelic rock coming out of American radios. The recordings were all that survived the black hole that sucked in so many lives during that time. A few years ago some of those songs were revived by a Californian/Cambodian band that has gotten quite a bit of positive press and awards but no real rock stardom.
The name of the group is Dengue Fever, and they continue to make recordings of older and also original work. I understand no Khmer so I've no idea what most of the words are saying but the keening sound of the Cambodian vocals combined with surfer guitar creates that trippy delirious sound almost like the out of body feeling of dengue fever.
http://www.youtube.com/...
So.. Ever had it?