While we’d far rather push it out of our minds than think about it, a huge part of traveling abroad is the somewhat unnerving fact that we’re putting ourselves at risk. Sure, things happen at home, too, but depending where you live (and where you travel) that risk is usually increased the moment you go out of the country.
Maybe it’s our obliviousness as tourists or our hunger for the unknown as travelers, but even with that risk lurking in the shadows we just can’t get enough. Mugging, theft, sickness, and disease aside, we keep embarking back into the world for more.
I’m included in the above, now planning a second trip to Southeast Asia despite the fact that I got ridiculously sick the first time. What I had caught (and hadn’t quite known at the time) was Dengue Fever — a ‘debilitating viral disease of the tropics, transmitted by mosquitoes’, according to Google.
It was my very last day in Thailand before returning home to Vancouver, Canada, and I was staying at a hotel in Bangkok when the symptoms hit me. I was traveling with my sister and we had to wake up at 4:30 am to take our shuttle to the airport, and I awoke around this time to feeling headachy, hot, and sore. For me personally, waking up really early has some strange side effects, and I was used to feeling a bit sick and out of it at such an ungodly hour. That said, I didn’t think much of it and expected it to pass.
I knew by the time we were in the waiting room at the airport that something was wrong. While I didn’t feel nauseous, my body repeatedly switched between sweating and shivering, and my lower back and legs got increasingly more sore. While my sister doted on me by requesting an additional blanket on the plane (after announcing that I felt sick and about 10 people around me opted to switch seats) and purchasing tylenol at the Tokyo airport (we had to switch flights three times on the trip back), nothing seemed to be working and the incessant pain only got worse.
I have to admit that when I arrived in Vancouver, I didn’t report my illness to customs (despite all the signs that urged me to do exactly that). This was all happening around the same time as the Ebola outbreak, and I felt that they would detain me for as long as they deemed necessary to make sure I didn’t have it. It was selfish of me, in retrospect (and I don’t suggest you do the same), but I tiredly took my opportunity to return home, and tried to sleep it off.
That’s when the worst parts began. My body was unable to stay asleep as I continuously awoke to incredibly itchy palms of my hands and soles of my feet, and dense, deep pains in my shins, thighs, and back. I was getting the full brunt of it, and that meant experiencing what the disease is nicknamed as: bone break fever.
At that point I was taken to the hospital. I didn’t bother bringing much with me as I didn’t expect to stay long — I figured they’d simply give me some pills and send me back to bed. Instead, I was admitted to a bed in emergency, strapped up to an IV and prodded repeatedly for tests like Ebola, Malaria, and finally, Dengue. It took a good day and a half before they even tried that last one, and by the time the tests came back positive I’d been hooked up to an IV and had been sweating in my same clothes for three days. I was bored out of my mind, still in pain, and suddenly aware of a disease that I had never known existed.
I realize now that I was incredibly lucky to have caught the disease so late in the trip (so that I could be treated at home instead of at a foreign hospital) but I did have to endure one hell of a trip back. To provide you with some more information on the symptoms, cause, prevention, and treatment, I’ve listed my tips below. Trust me, this is one mosquito bite you will never forget, and it’s better to be informed now than in pain later.
Where is Dengue Most Common?
Clearly Southeast Asia, this we know. On top of that? Africa, Central and South America, the Caribbean, the Eastern Mediterranean, and Oceania. Basically if you’re planning to visit a tropical or subtropical area, do a quick search to see if any Dengue outbreaks have been reported.
How did you get Dengue?
I don’t know the exact moment that that particular mosquito bit me, but I do have a guess. Symptoms typically arise 4-10 days after the bug actually bites you, and at that time I was on the island of Koh Tao (mind you this was in 2014). The mosquitos are most active in the hours around dawn and dusk, and there was an evening at the beach where I was basically eaten alive by mosquitos. Most likely, that’s when it happened.
What are the symptoms and how long do they last?
There are different strains of Dengue, and symptoms can be a lot more severe than even what I experienced. They often include high fever, severe headaches, pain behind the eyes, severe joint and muscle pain, fatigue, nausea and vomiting (which I thankfully didn’t have), and skin rash (which follows two to five days after the fever starts). There can also be bleeding of the gums and nose, bruising, and in severe cases, internal bleeding and death (though that’s extremely rare!). The majority of symptoms can last up to 10 days.
What can I do to prevent Dengue?
Unfortunately, not a whole lot. There is no immunization vaccine for Dengue yet, and there are no pills/medicine you can take to lower your risk. All you can do is wear a lot of mosquito repellant (with at least 30% DEET concentrate), wear long-sleeved shirts and long pants (which we all know is the last thing we want to do in a hot country), and use preventative mosquito nets when you sleep.
Once you have it, are you at least immune for the future?
Unfortunately, no. Since there are different strains of Dengue and I’ve only had (and become immune to) one of them, the rest can still affect me should I get bit again. Also chances are if that happens, that the symptoms can also be much worse. It really isn’t something you want to catch more than once (honestly, let’s aim for never at all), and if you do you should see a doctor immediately and tell them you’ve had Dengue before.
What happened after it was all over with?
My life resumed to normal and I made a full recovery, though I had some doctors calling me from a nearby hospital asking me to participate in a Dengue study. Apparently, not a lot of people in Canada have had it (which makes sense considering that those mosquitos don’t live here), and they wanted to keep their research up to date on where the disease can be contracted. Hopefully its studies such as this and blog posts like mine that can shed a little light on this particular risk. After all, healthy travel is happy travel!
If you’ve also had Dengue before and perhaps had a different experience, comment below so we can bond over our hatred for mosquitos! If you have more questions, just ask. 🙂
