Catching a tropical decease in India is always a possibility. Especially with the rain season in full swing; this leaves stagnant puddles of water everywhere, which are a heaven for mosquitos; especially the "zebra-mosquito", aka the dengue mosquito...
This week marks exactly 1 year ago that my husband, who is never sick, came home from work feeling "unfit". He didn't eat much that day, and went to bed early.
The next day his body was burning up with fever. So his lovely wife took him to the hospital to get his blood checked for the feared dengue virus... But later that day the test proved his blood was negative for dengue, so it must be a major case of the flu then... or so we thought.
Dengue has a couple very distinct symptoms and my husband was displaying more and more of them as the hours passed. Lethargic? Check. Fever? Check. Headache with pressure behind the eyes? Check. Not wanting to eat? Check. Joint pains? Check. Needless to say, I was quite worried.
Then a nurse friend told us that in order for dengue to show up in the blood, it could take up to 5 days. But after 4 days my husband started to feel better. His fever was mostly gone and he felt more chipper.
On Saturday he announced to the world that he was "better again". So we went to the mall... We made it half way the first floor (of 4 floors) and he was spent, done, finished. While outside waiting for the car, we noticed his skin was kinda reddish, with spots, almost like a rash... (another symptom of dengue). So instead of going home we went straight to the hospital to get his blood checked. And finally, a couple hours later it was diagnosed as dengue.
Not that the diagnose helps with anything; there are no medications, nothing can be done really, but sit and wait and hope it doesn't get worse. Some cases require hospitalization but luckily my husband's case wasn't that bad. In the following weeks he very slowly regained his energy and went from 2 hour workdays to 4 and finally back to full days. In the end it took almost 2 months before he was fully recovered.
Having had dengue would give him a lifelong immunity, if only there weren't different types of dengue. He may be immune for the one type, if he would be so unlucky as to catch one of the other types, it will increase the risk of severe complications.
This week marks exactly 1 year ago that my husband, who is never sick, came home from work feeling "unfit". He didn't eat much that day, and went to bed early.
The next day his body was burning up with fever. So his lovely wife took him to the hospital to get his blood checked for the feared dengue virus... But later that day the test proved his blood was negative for dengue, so it must be a major case of the flu then... or so we thought.
Dengue has a couple very distinct symptoms and my husband was displaying more and more of them as the hours passed. Lethargic? Check. Fever? Check. Headache with pressure behind the eyes? Check. Not wanting to eat? Check. Joint pains? Check. Needless to say, I was quite worried.
Then a nurse friend told us that in order for dengue to show up in the blood, it could take up to 5 days. But after 4 days my husband started to feel better. His fever was mostly gone and he felt more chipper.
On Saturday he announced to the world that he was "better again". So we went to the mall... We made it half way the first floor (of 4 floors) and he was spent, done, finished. While outside waiting for the car, we noticed his skin was kinda reddish, with spots, almost like a rash... (another symptom of dengue). So instead of going home we went straight to the hospital to get his blood checked. And finally, a couple hours later it was diagnosed as dengue.
Not that the diagnose helps with anything; there are no medications, nothing can be done really, but sit and wait and hope it doesn't get worse. Some cases require hospitalization but luckily my husband's case wasn't that bad. In the following weeks he very slowly regained his energy and went from 2 hour workdays to 4 and finally back to full days. In the end it took almost 2 months before he was fully recovered.
Having had dengue would give him a lifelong immunity, if only there weren't different types of dengue. He may be immune for the one type, if he would be so unlucky as to catch one of the other types, it will increase the risk of severe complications.