DENGUE

[Bajanne]

Just heard in the news that there is an outbreak of dengue in South America and the Caribbean.  Scary.
I don't know exactly what they mean by the Caribbean, because it could be those southern Caribbean countries that are near South America.
I had dengue twice, and I would not wish it on an enemy.
Can you imagine my second bout was the month I was recuperating from a mastectomy .  I really thought that when you were going through something like that, it kind of immunised you from other things!!
But there is a very serious form of dengue.  There was a very bad case in my country.  The good-looking, intelligent (at our most prestigious grammar school) 15 year old son of a doctor got it.  It seems that you should not take aspirin if you have haemorraghic dengue.  They even sent him to Florida with another doctor, but it was no use.

[brenda]

So what exactly is it? And what does it do to you? Is it like a flu?

[Bajanne]

Yes, it is like a flu. You are feverish and even your skin feel fuzzy and sore.  But what is particularly horrible is that your muscles hurt - places where you didn't even know you had muscles.  Even looking from left to right too quickly can hurt.
But the insult added to the injury is that your mouth makes everything taste awful.  Even if you don't lose your appetite (I hardly ever), the food tastes too awful to eat.
I can still remember my first dengue.  I was living in the island of Antigua then.  My first summer after I graduated from the equivalent of Grade 13 at age 18.  I was spending a week at a friend.  It was awful.  The symptoms started just as I went up the road to take the bus to her home.  But the worse part was seeing that first plate of food her mother served me.  Absolutely white rice, cooked to perfection, curried chicken wings, and crisp beautiful vegetables.  I remember that plate of food until today (that was 1968!)  I took one spoonful and could go no further!
when I returned home, our plum tree (Caribbean plum - yellow and tart and sweet) was full.  I tasted one and thought "Wow, these taste dreadful this year".  It was only the next week that I realized that it was my dengue mouth!
My next bout was at age 43.  Don't need another bout!
Mosquitoes give you dengue - the aedes aegypti type, I think.

[brenda]

I got sick this summer from a mosquito, had West Nile Virus. That was nasty. Very high fever, I didn't have an actual headache but my head hurt from all the pressure in my spine. Swollen glands. Every muscle you have is weak and hurts. Then a few days later my stomach started getting sick plus by then I had sinus infection. I was very dehydrated. Two different antibiotics for 10 days. I still have not felt well since, I get so tired and just feel even more unwell. They say it takes about a year to really leave your system. It sucked, and the rash I had on my back that goes with West Nile is still bugging me.

[Sluff]

YUK...and you want the annual get together down there?   

[Black]

Isn't that what they call "break bone fever"?  I thought that was usually fatal, and you have survived twice.    You are tough!

I know that DDT was overused in the early days when the long term ecological damage was not known.  But now, with mosquito borne diseases so viciously spreading, I believe that DDT should be brought back for mosquito control, at least until the number of mosquitoes can be greatly reduced.