Surviving Dengue Fever in Bali

A. aegypti mosquito
A. aegypti mosquito which carries Dengue fever

What is Dengue Fever?

Dengue Fever is a serious illness caused by a virus transmitted by the female A. aegypti mosquito. It is estimated that over 400 million people worldwide get Dengue each year. The highest risk of dengue occurs during rainy season (in Bali this is October to March) but it is possible to get it at any time of year.

Symptoms:

  • high fever (40°C/104°F)
  • headache, especially a pain behind the eyes
  • joint and muscle pain that can be severe
  • swollen glands
  • nausea, loss of appetite
  • skin rash

Dengue fever can develop into a life threatening condition known as dengue hemorrhagic fever. If you develop the following symptoms, go to the hospital:

  • rapid breathing
  • severe abdominal pain
  • bleeding gums
  • nose bleed
  • blood in vomit

There are 4 serotypes of the virus that causes dengue. Recovery from one only gives you immunity to that serotype. Getting dengue more than once increases your chances of developing the much more dangerous dengue hemorrhagic fever.

The only treatment is bed rest, staying hydrated and paracetamol for the pain.

The vaccine for Dengue fever is not yet widely available. In 2016, it became available in the Philippines and Indonesia but it is only partially effective. It is not yet recommended for travellers because you need to get 3 doses over the course of 6 months.

When You Least Expect It

I have always been quite lucky that mosquitoes generally do not bite me. They love biting my husband and child but they have always left me alone. Perhaps this made me overconfident. I always use mosquito repellent on my son but I never use it on myself and certainly not during the day.

Unfortunately, the daytime is exactly when the Dengue carrying A. aegypti mosquito likes to bite. We had not been in Bali for more than a couple of days, when I noticed a bite on my ankle, just below my leggings. I was surprised but thought no more about it.

We moved from Kuta to a hotel in Sanur near the beach. Bali can be quite hot and humid in February and I thought that it was the heat that was sapping my energy and making me feel so run down. I fainted twice in Sanur and thought that the humidity might be to much for me. We decided to pack up again and go to Ubud.

It was less humid in Ubud and I couldn’t figure out why I was so tired all the time. Then I woke up one morning with the worst headache of my life. Many people have described the early symptoms of Dengue as being something like a hangover or the flu. This was a sharp, stabbing pain behind my eyes. As the day progressed, I developed horrific pain in my legs and lower back. Dengue is also known as breakbone fever and it is easy to see why. The pain could get very intense and it never let up.

I still had no idea what was wrong with me. I got the hotel owner to drive me to Ubud Clinic. I could barely stand up in the waiting room. The doctor suspected Dengue right away but said that I would have to come back the next day for a blood test to confirm. She sent me home with paracetamol and some medicine containing echinacea to “boost my immune system”. The blood test the next day confirmed that it was Dengue and revealed that my blood platelet level had already dropped to 113,000. The doctor said that if it fell under 100,000, I would probably need to go to the hospital for treatment.

The next week is just a blur of pain and nausea. Paracetamol does not make the pain go away and the doctors would not give me anything stronger. Micheal had deadlines at work and had no choice but to leave me alone with the baby in the mornings while he worked from a cafe next door. Fortunately, L.N. was content to sit on the bed and watch cartoons while I tried not to cry in front of him.

I did end up getting the rash but I didn’t even see it in the darkened hotel room (light hurt my eyes) until after my fever broke.

The day after my fever broke, we went back to Kuta to arrange travel back to Bangkok. I could stand up but not much more. Micheal thought it would do me good to walk next door to the bakery with him to “get some fresh air”. I fainted in the bakery. From the day I was diagnosed, it took about 9 days before I felt okay again (so the entire illness lasted about two weeks).

Treating Dengue Fever

If you are unfortunate enough to get Dengue, the best thing you can do is stay hydrated. From the studies I read, every glass of water you drink up to 5 a day, decreases the probability of needing to be hospitalized. I alternated plain water with a sports drink called Pocari Sweat. In Thailand, there is also a powdered electrolyte beverage called Royal-D that you can pick up at any 7-11.

Where to Go for Testing and Treatment

Kuta:

Bali International Medical Centre – this is a private hospital and reported to be quite expensive. They speak English and cater primarily to foreigners. If you need to be admitted overnight, you will be asked for payment for the room upfront, even if you have travel insurance. Reports indicate that this is around $650 USD per night.

Kyoia Medical Services – can come to your hotel room to collect blood for dengue test and email results to you a couple of hours later. This will be more expensive than walking into a clinic.

The Dose Bali – will come to your hotel to do the blood test and can provide an IV drip in your hotel room. This is only for helping you to recover from a mild to moderate case of dengue fever. If you have developed dengue hemorrhagic fever, you need to be in a hospital.

Ubud:

Ubud Clinic Website says 24 hours service and lab but they made me come back the next day for my lab results.

Ubud Health Care Clinic – will come to your hotel room.

Preventing Mosquito Bites

The risk of getting Dengue is not something you can ignore if you want to travel in Asia.

1. You absolutely must wear mosquito repellent every day if you are in an area that has a high risk of Dengue Fever. Don’t forget your ankles and feet! Experts will tell you that you need a mosquito repellent containing at least 10 percent DEET. However, I have had success with using Badger Anti-Bug Balm
, which contains no DEET; only citronella, cedar, and lemongrass oils.

2. If you have a small child, get a mosquito net to cover their stroller/pushchair if you are going to be out in the evening. If you have an infant that can’t use mosquito repellent, I would consider covering their pram with netting during the day if there is a current Dengue outbreak. It is possible to rent a cot with a mosquito net cover from Bali Baby if your hotel does not provide one.

3. Stay in accommodation with air conditioning so that you don’t need to leave a door or window open. If you absolutely must stay in a budget, fan-only room, keep your doors and windows closed during dawn, dusk and night. Keeping a fan aimed at you while you sleep will help keep mosquitoes from landing on you while you sleep.

4. If you are staying in accommodation that has large openings in the bathroom wall for ventilation, keep the door between the bathroom and the rest of your room closed at all times.

5. If you want to sit outside on a patio or terrace, use a mosquito coil. If you are allergic to these like I am, try citronella candles.

6. If you are at an open-air restaurant, try to sit with a fan blowing directly on you.

What is the best mosquito repellent?

Popular brands of repellent available in Bali are Soffel, Utama Spice, and Autan but these have very mixed reviews of effectiveness so if you have a brand that works for you, bring it from home. A lot of Australians swear by Bushman gel since it is water resistant (meaning you won’t sweat it off) and it contains a sunscreen. Keep in mind that the 80% DEET formula can’t be used on children. There is also a 20% DEET formula.

Consumer Reports Magazine tested several mosquito repellents specifically against Aedes mosquitoes, the type that carries Dengue and Zika but all of them were American brands that are not widely available outside the US. However, that study at least tells us that there are some effective solutions for people who are allergic to DEET. The top three they tested were all effective for up to 7-8 hours:

  • Sawyer Fisherman’s Formula Picaridin – Active ingredient: picaridin 20%.
  • Ben’s 30% Deet Tick & Insect Wilderness Formula
  • Repel Lemon Eucalyptus – Active ingredient: oil of lemon eucalyptus 30%

Other herbal insect repellents such as Burt’s Bees Herbal insect repellent were tested but found to only be effective for up to an hour. That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t use them, especially if you are allergic to DEET, just that you will need to apply them more frequently.

Hair Loss After Dengue Fever

Three months after recovering from Dengue Fever, my hair started falling out. It became noticeably thin and I was very worried because I did not know it was connected to the previous bout of Dengue and the doctors in Spain did not know what was causing it. This type of hair loss is called telogen effluvium, and it can occur after any serious illness or a traumatic event. The hair will shed for 1-2 months but it will grow back. One study I found showed that 45% of people experienced some amount of hair loss after getting Dengue Fever.

When the Joint Pain Does Not Go Away

Some people have been emailing me and telling me that they experienced joint pain for months after getting Dengue. There is another disease called Chikungunya that is very similar to Dengue, except that the joint pain and fatigue can linger much longer. In fact, it is possible to be infected with Chikungunya and Dengue at the same time. I will try to do some more research on this, until then you can look at the Wikipedia entry for Chikungunya.

38 thoughts on “Surviving Dengue Fever in Bali”

  1. Wow! What a nightmare! Glad you are feeling better and doubly glad that the Gib wasn’t affected–hard to imagine. Do Asian people have general immunity to this sort of thing? They must have, otherwise there wouldn’t be so damn many of them! I guess you always have to take travel precautions–like you do when going to Mexico to avoid Montezuma’s Revenge (which I’ve had personally and DO NOT recommend or Google + in any way, shape or form).

    Happy trails!

    Reply
  2. wow, you are lucky… only two weeks!! I am pretty sure I was bitten in Cambodia, not Bali, but I hung out in Ubud for a better part of 6 months beating “breakbone fever”. It ended with me hospitalized in Denpesar, and escaping. I am having minor troubles now, I feel a relapse of the virus, I have an unberable rash and hemmorage on my neck, my lymph node completely swollen (this is now 6 years later), dealing with viral “flares” from the changing seasons. Need I remind you this virus, never goes away, it simply goes to sleep in your kidney and liver. it It’s really sad, but our society has failed to devise a method of treatment for this very serious illness. When I was in Bali, I had many blood tests ran, but getting a dengue or malaria test was almost taboo. After 6 months of fighting this “parasite” in Bali, ending in hospitalization, then escaping from the hospital to lay bed ridden for another six months in Singapore.

    TBH I don’t know what is worse, suffering from breakbone fever in the heat of tropics, or coming back home dealing with bureaucracy and quack Dr’s sending me to get tests for Cancer when all I need is some Aclycovir (the only anti-viral avaiable by Rx) to beat something I will probably be dealing with seasonally for the rest of my life. Words of wisdom, keep the stress low and fresh fruit count when changing from hot/cold. It’s so narrowminded, ignorant, and obsurd of the Western Medical System that Aclycovir is only used to treat herpes, when in fact it is a full-spectrum anti-viral.

    Reply
    • That is horrible! I had heard that it takes some people months to recover but I did not know that the virus could come back. I was very lucky since the worst of it was over in 2 weeks. I did feel tired and a little nauseated for about a month afterward. I could not concentrate on anything. My eyes were also extremely sensitive to sunlight for a few weeks as well.

      I have also read that the illness is much more dangerous if you get it twice. I am very careful to protect myself against mosquitoes now.

      Reply
  3. I too believe I caught a case of Dengue. I have been staying in Bali for nearly 2 months and was hoping to escape without a single case of Bali Belly, Dengue, etc., but Bali had other plans. It seems like my body is really struggling to fight this virus off, and so far the worst symptoms have been a lack of energy, rash and joint/muscle pains.

    My rash definitely looks like those displayed via Google Images, and I remember how strange it was getting bitten during the day. I even said something to my girlfriend and showed her the bites about 1 week ago. Typically, I have never been bitten by a mosquito during daylight, so that was a red flag.

    Thank you for sharing your story. It’s a bit more comforting knowing that this whole Dengue thing happens more often than not. Hope your travels find you well… blessings 🙂

    Reply
    • It has now been over 7 months since I had Dengue Fever and I have not had any recurring symptoms. The only after effect that I had was my hair started to fall out a few months after the illness. It shed heavily for 2 months, got very thin and then stopped. Now it is all growing back.

      I have a friend who contracted Dengue in Cambodia and he never experienced more than the rash and a mild body ache that he said was something like the flu. Some people get lucky.

      Reply
  4. I thought I had recovered from dengue but 18 months after getting it I relapsed and have become housebound with flu like symptoms and severe fatigue. I have been sick for 5 months and would like to know if anyone else has had a relapse?
    koalafur@gmail.com

    Reply
    • It is so hard to know if your current symptoms are related to your bout with Dengue. There are a lot of viruses that can cause extreme fatigue. I hope someone out there has an answer for you. Best wishes.

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  5. Both my wife and I returned from Bali last Wednesday (23/9/15) with our two children after 10 days in Legian. We have just found out an hour ago we both have confirmed cases of Dengue Fever, I concur this is the sickest I think I have ever been, I had the rash whereas my wife didn’t. The pain behind my eyes and joints is something I will never forget!

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  6. Hi
    I am going to India and Thailand for 2 months in January 2016. I have been reading about Dengue for a few months. I take health extremely serious, very concerned not to get ill on my vacation. I will be staying north of India, and south of Thailand. Since the moonsoon will be long gone, does that mean there will be fewer cases of Dengue? Is there anywhere i can check where there are dengue outbreaks.

    Thank you and hope you all recover very soon

    Reply
  7. Currently in dempensar hospital $1000 per day. Spent first 5 days vomiting, fever,shaking, aches in every part of my body like a thousand knifes stabbing at once,sensitive to light,cracking headache.. They wont test for dengue till tomorrow telling me it wont show up until then? God help me. Dont come to Bali its not worth the risk..

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  8. Planning a trip to Bali for 3 weeks, leaving next Wednesday to visit my daughter in Ubud. Apart from protective clothing and mosquito repellant, is there any other precautions I can take to prevent Dengue fever?

    Reply
    • I updated the section above on preventing mosquito bites with a few more tips that have worked for me. Remember, over 3 million tourists visit Bali each year and only a small percentage of them get Dengue. Have a great trip!

      Reply
  9. I found your report so descriptive that I put a link in a short article on our website here http://www.mydestination.com/bali/travel-articles/723568/coming-to-bali-soon to yours. We like to keep visitors to Bali informed and your experience, plus the comments, give good information.
    Of course we also made a link to Wikipedia for those wanting scientific background to what is happening to them. I am married to a nurse, so she used her trusty iPad to research my condition. All it eventually cost us was the Rp 1.250.000 for daily blood tests until my blood count was right. No need to pay rip-off hospital prices. We already had that experience when my wife contracted typhoid here in Bali.
    For people living in Canggu area, we recommend the BaliMed Ambulance Station – clean and efficient nurses who come to your address and deliver written reports within an hour.
    Enjoy your travels.

    Reply
  10. My wife is indonesian and I am an australian and spent 3 weeks in bali. Both of us got fever and aches at different times and after reading the last article we also recommend to take action into your own hands as the higher starred hospitals mostly seem to take on a non-service approach by charging you $1000 a day, insured or not. The nurses , doctors and specialists do a great job however certainly enhance you staying longer as they over judge your illness. Once back in Australia my dr confirmed the over diagnosis of pneumonia…and dengue fever?!
    So as a regular visitor for 41 years to bali my humble advise is to be informed before you go and to be super careful and healthy when you venture to bali.

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  11. I have had Dengue three times now. Once in Malaysia, once in Indonesia, once in Thailand. Hospitalised the third time. Under all but constant nursing watch for the other two. Twice confirmed by blood tests. Keep drinking liquids with body salts if you can keep them down, otherwise a drip in hospital.. The hallucinations were quite something. Not to mention the pain!

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  12. I got Dengue Fever just before Christmas 2015 in Bali. You describe the symptoms well. But you were lucky it was only nine days. I was hospitalised for a week, lost 6 kgs in two weeks. It is now four weeks but I am so fatigued I can barely conduct my life at all! While my blood count is back to normal, my liver tests show that it is not operating properly…hopefully will get better.

    My doctor says that it might be months, and helpfully gave me a research paper to read that showed that around 50 percent of sufferers still had symptoms one year later (although some of the symptoms were mild).

    Now you tell me my hair is going to fall out!! ha… that is what I am most worried about now!

    Seriously, I had no idea about dengue fever in Bali. I should have done my homework, and should have taken some precautions. I care for a foster child on my own, and she is completely lost at the moment.

    Reply
    • It was around 9 days before I was well enough to leave the hotel room, but it took another couple of months before my energy level got back to anything close to resembling normal.

      I’m sorry to be the bearer of bad news about hair loss but it happens to a lot of people and I don’t want anybody to be surprised by it, like I was. The hair loss isn’t going to leave a big bald spot, it is just going to get thinner all over. If you have short hair, it won’t be so bad for you. I used to have hair that reached the middle of my back and I had to cut it to shoulder length. One year later, I have to keep trimming it because it is still mixed lengths all over.

      I hope your fatigue starts to get better soon. Take vitamins, eat healthy, and stay away from alcohol until your liver enzymes return to normal. Good luck.

      Reply
  13. Sorry to hear you were so ill with Dengue Fever. I also contracted it in Feb 2015 while visiting beautiful Bali which I had visited 11 times without any problems. I was also very ill with low blood count. Also had the hair lose, peeling feet and hands, rash and weight loss.
    My fear now is if I go back to Bali and get another strain of Dengue then I risk getting the Hemorrhaging Dengue.
    I love Bali and now am waiting for an vaccination against Dengue.

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  14. Ooooh. My partner has had for 4 days since our Bali outing 5 days ago. Reading this is very scary as I’m absolutely covered in bites! Hopefully I didn’t get a bad one.

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  15. Hello all,
    For the last 2 days I had a sorethroat that is getting worst and today my nose starting running in the morning (apparently a flu), but in the evening I felt tired and had fever.
    I Am in the middle of the night feeling in my stomach an awful pain and Still feeling weak, with fever, feeling like in between of a flu and a hangover.
    Would like to know if I present any of the symptoms of having dengue and if I should go to hospital (I don’t have insurance) or I can be just resting, drinking water and having paracetamol at home.
    Thanks so much, it suppose I will travel after tomorrow but obviously if feeling weak or in danger I will cancel.

    Reply
    • Where are you? Are you in Bali? You might be able to go to a small, local clinic instead of the hospital to get tested if you really think you have Dengue. The early symptoms of Dengue do feel a little bit like the flu but the fatigue was extreme. I could not walk more more than 400 meters without feeling like I was going to faint.

      If you get the rash, you will know that you have Dengue. After I went to the clinic and got tested, I just stayed in bed and did not go to the hospital but I am not a doctor and I can’t give you medical advice.

      I hope you are just having a bad case of the flu and not Dengue.

      Reply
  16. I had Dengue fever in January/Feb last year. It took about 2 weeks to get it diagnosed. We had been in Bali for a 8 day holiday & my symptoms began the day we were leaving. I ended up in hospital on about the 6th day totally dehydrated & with the most severe headache I have ever known which actually took about 6 weeks to completely disappear. I also had a rash which lasted for about 1/2 days previously. I had a blood test in hospital which I was told was a waste of time by 1 registrar as she was Malaysian & I did not have Dengue fever. Well the results came back & I did. My platelets count was down to 80,000 & I had a very low white blood count. They eventually gave me IV fluids & pain relief which took the headache away….at least till the morning!! I was also sleeping most of the day which is very unusual for me as I can survive on around 5 hrs a night!
    It took around 6 weeks till I completely felt back to normal but around the same time this year I had returning symptoms but not as bad. I am currently in a study being conducted by PH.D. Students from UWA over 5 years to hopefully gain insight into the disease & discover a vaccine for it. They consider this disease to be an accute virus which means it does not lay dormant in ur system like a latent virus but I have heard a lot of people say that they do have returning symptoms.

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  17. Hi there, thanks for your story. Dengue really sneaks up on you. I thought I had food poisoning the last week of 2015, so I kept up the fluids and electrolytes at a local pharmacy in Ho Chi Minh City. It was time to extend the visa at that point, so I made the choice to return home, because I had already spent 3 months away. I was ok on the flight home, with a layover in KL, I was well enough to shop duty free, but I could only eat light, and then returned to Melbourne. I thought a few days later I was fully recovered until I slept 24 hours with a couple breaks in between.. and then came a steam train.

    Wow, I woke up screaming the next night for no apparent reason. I felt really out of it. I can’t even explain it, like a hangover but not the pain, just really confused that I had slept all day. I cried on the phone to my sister anyway. I went to the doctors then the hospital the following morning with a hot temperature and a few days in they knew what it was after testing me for everything, they even thought I had HIV. Hallucinations, panic attacks, I was tied to the bed for a while the first night in the hospital because I nearly overpowered the poor nurse. She had to get the male nurses to restrain me. I was so out of it when I had visitors early on.

    I was connected up to all these monitors, had a drip, got the rash on my legs, numbness, and just general soreness. I remember always saying “ouch” when the nurse would touch me, even check the temperature. It turns out the hallucinations were caused by the infection getting very close to the brain fluid. 9 nine days later I went home and was just fatigued for a couple of weeks… and 3 months later I am tempted to book a ticket any day now, but I think I will be too paranoid of the mosquitoes because I don’t ever want to feel like that again, Vietnam is amazing though. Where are you now?

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  18. Great web site that I’ve just stumbled on. I had dengue back in Jan 2016 hospitalised for a week beggining of Feb. Went through all the stages including the rash which my doc called white mans islands in the pink sea and finally blood shot feet which eventually shed like a snake. Thought I came out the other side pretty lucky with new soft feet.

    We are now in May and my hair has begun shedding at an alarming rate, I would say I have lost a third of my long hair and their is no sign of it easing up yet.

    I’ve been to the doc, blood tests are all clear but strangely enough is reluctant to link it to dengue. Having read a number of posts all my symptoms are too coincidental to other stories.

    Just wondering if you took anything (natural) to help boost your immune system or blood circulation to your head? Or any natural oils you might have applied to your hair that might have encouraged it to stop shedding?

    Many thanks for posting your info, most other sites are too eager for people to buy hair products, drives me crazy when you just want a little guidance.

    Reply
    • I’m sorry that it took me so long to reply to your comment. I am currently on a camping trip and have limited internet access.

      There is nothing that I know of that is going to stop the shedding before it is finished. It will stop if it is related to Dengue. My long hair got thin enough to make me very unhappy but I don’t think anyone else really noticed except my husband.

      The only thing that might help is to take a B vitamin complex. It won’t stop the shedding but it will help new hair grow in faster and stronger. As the new hair grows in, you might want to use argan or jojoba oil to help smooth down all the flyaway bits. Make sure you apply the oil to the hair while it is still wet or it will look frizzier. If you live in a colder climate, do not use coconut oil for this. I made that mistake and the heavy coconut oil caused many of the new hairs to break off. Just be really gentle with your hair right now, don’t keep it in a ponytail all the time.

      I ended up cutting mine to shoulder length as it was growing out so that it would not look so thin. Over a year later, I think it looks okay. I can’t tell any difference in the thickness now but I do miss my long hair and can’t wait for it to grow out again.

      Reply
    • One more thing, my hair could not tolerate harsh dyes while it was shedding and for at least 6 months afterward. I had to stop dying it red and use a semi-permanent dye with no ammonia. I’m guessing that bleach is also out of the question as your hair recovers but that just might be my own experience. The first new hairs that grew in seemed more fragile than normal and I had to be very careful with it.

      Reply
  19. My husband has all of the symptoms of dengue fever after traveling to Mexico. We still do not have confirmation through the labs because it takes forever to get them back in the US. He is going on day 11, but a still pretty miserable. It started with a hangover like feeling, eye pain, fever, and an excruciating headache. He has had to have several rounds of IV fluids. He had the worst case of sweats I have ever seen. The sweating and extreme chills have subsided, but the fevers still come and go. The headache is crazy. When will this end?

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  20. I have had denque and been recovering now.my hair is also faling out.and i Am still very tired.my concentration is very low.but i think this Will be beter in time.i live in europe. I want to know what wil happen if you get iT a second time.is iT always fatal We love hollidays in bali and Mexico etc.but if THE risk is t high then we Will not do iT.Has anyone know what wil happen if you get iT a second time.In my country THE information is very poor?!

    Reply
    • Your concentration will get better soon and your hair will grow back. If you get dengue a second time, there is a much higher chance that it will develop into dengue hemorrhagic fever. That means you will probably be in the hospital but it is not always fatal. Don’t take chances. If you are going to be in a country where there is high risk, wear mosquito repellent every day. You must also always have travel insurance now because if you get it again, you will need to go to a doctor.

      Don’t let it stop you from travelling but be careful. I am in Thailand right now where it has been a bad year for dengue. I never forget my mosquito repellent now!

      Reply
  21. I have just across your blog Ariadne, and was so lovely to read your account of dengue along with everyone else’s experiences here also – so thank you. I got dengue fever in Bali back in late October 2016 and it hit me like a ton of bricks as soon as I landed in Singapore (around one week after being bitten). I had no idea about dengue before I came down with the fever, headache, nausea etc, but my boyfriend researched online and thought it might be dengue according to my symptoms. By day 3 I was feeling no better and because my headache was so bad, being unable to eat much due to nausea and feeling severely dehydrated I was on the verge of fainting. I decided to go to hospital to get it diagnosed and although they couldn’t confirm it was dengue instantly, as testing takes a few days, I was admitted straight away as my blood count was down to 75,000 and I needed monitoring. I ended up in hospital for 6 days (thank goodness for travel insurance!!) and my blood count went as low as 35,000. It was one of the worst weeks of my life and being in a foreign hospital far from family and friends can be so scary. It took about six weeks for me to get my energy back and the same amount of time for my liver to recover fully (I was having weekly tests when I returned home to the UK). I lost around 7 kg/16 lbs after dengue and I haven’t regained much more than 2 kg/4 lbs since. The biggest bother for me now is the hair loss, which started around one month after recovery. It’s been particularly bad recently, but it’s good to know that this won’t last forever! I too, like others who’ve had dengue fever, am terrified of going back to Asia in the near future in fear of contracting dengue again, but I hope one day to return because it’s such a beautiful part of the world.

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  22. I suffered from a bout of dengue fever last year. Broken bone strain.
    Painful to say the least.
    Lost 4 weeks of work.
    Hospitalised for several days….should have been longer however it was a terrible hospital that made error after error…Aussie hospital.
    My question is.
    Would i be silly and pushing my luck to return to Bali
    I have been visiting Bali for many many years and have never had any issues with any illnesses.
    Brought my kids up there for 3 years.
    Would appreciate some advice please.

    Reply
  23. I wad told I had dengue and skeeters syndrome through a blood test. I was badly bitten by mosquitos last summer 2018. i had a swollen leg and bad red inflamed bites. I was given anti-histamines and cream for the bites by my gp
    in the October I began to feel unwell headaches dizziness fatigue aches in.my.body and night sweats. My gp said it was a flu like virus and post viral fatigue. My blood tests where checked again and the result was dengue and skeeters syndrome. I have spent the last 6 or 7 months trying to get back on track. I am improving but the malaise comes and goes. I was previously an active person keep fit classes twice a week. And lots of walking. My gp said I will be ok but it may take up to a year to really improve. I caught these infections in the UK not abroad. My gp said because of global warming more cases are happening nowadays in Europe unfortunately.

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  24. Hi Tabitha had the some infections myself since 2018 through mosquito bites I got mine in the UK too.. I am Still not over it. As you say the malaise comes and goes. Horrible I hope you improve soon and all the other sufferers who have had dengue.

    Reply
  25. During my 3rd trip traveling alone in SE Asia, during Jan and Feb 2019, dry seasons, I contracted dengue.

    I think I got infected in Luang Prabang Laos at the Botanical Gardens as there were lots of mosquitoes lying low where the sprinklers were spraying waters onto the plants. I was in a rush that morning, and I didn’t apply any repellent. Besides, I hadn’t seen any mosquitoes and I dread applying chemicals to my body if I don’t have to.

    There were also mosquitoes in my room in Ho Chi Minh City, so it could have been there.

    I purposely travel during dry season when the weather is more comfortable and less mosquitoes.

    In fact, I NEVER saw mosquitoes during my Jan + Feb 2017 and 2018 trips in Siem Reap, 4 cities in Vietnam including Can Tho, Bangkok, Chiang Rai, Rajasthan and Kolkata India and Hong Kong.

    Was I blind or are they rare in the above places in the dry season?

    I didn’t know I had dengue but had to cut my trip short as I had no appetite for a week and just didn’t feel right. I had been taking a supplement called HTP-5 that is supposed to help with sleep – but when I returned home read it could also be used as an appetite suppressant so perhaps that is why I had little appetite.

    I was lucky in that I didn’t appear to have flu like symptoms, and no pain.

    I am a 66 year old guy, and my dream has been to retire and travel throughout SE Asia. I spoke with a doctor at the FDA and he did some research and told me for those who have had dengue before, the risk of dengue hemorrhagic fever is approx 3-5% if one gets bit by an infected mosquito again AND it’s one of the other 3 strains that you are not protected against.
    He cautioned these were rough numbers because the record keeping in SE Asia is spotty and they don’t always know who had dengue before.
    Am I crazy to want to still travel to SE Asia, especially Indonesia?

    Reply
  26. PS – does one need to apply repellent even while sleeping?
    I know there are mosquito nets – how effective are they?
    How do you use them while sleeping?

    My room always has A/C but a mosquito could always enter when a door is opened – even by a maid.

    Reply
  27. I got dengue fever back in May 2019 while I was visiting Koh Lanta, Thailand. I wasn’t very careful and didn’t apply insect repellent as I haven’t heard of any cases while I was there.

    My illness began 3 days after returning home (the UK) , I started feeling Flu like symptoms that became more and more severe throughout the night, so I took some paracetamol and went to GP in the morning. I told the GP that I just returned back from Thailand and I suspect it is dengue fever as I was covered in mosquito bites (I know, my bad). So they took some blood tests and sent me home, but my symptoms got worse and my temperature was as high as 40 so I had to go to Hospital.

    I spent all night awake in a corridor in A&E with severe muscle and joints pain and fever, waiting to be seen by a doctor. Nurses were checking on me and taking my blood every now and then, and I finally got sent to an isolated room as the doctors didn’t know exactly what was wrong with me so they had to send all sorts of blood tests to be checked before they could confirm anything.

    I also was put on a drip and doctors thought it would be a good idea to give me two different anti biotics to avoid any other illness that might be causing me all this. There was a point when one night the doctor on duty came to give me some anti biotics, as they thought i was going into sepsis but wanted to make me aware of the side effects (kidney failure in my case), I felt really scared and started crying as I had no choice but to take the anti biotics. I found out later on that, that doctor didn’t really know that the side effects are more serious in the elderly and really young children and that I was very rare in my case.

    I was in hospital for four days when eventually some of my tests started to come back as negative for HIV,HEP..etc. They even tested for malaria but still no sign of dengue fever test. I got sent home on the fourth day still feeling really ill but the fever has gone, I was just left very weak I could barely walk for a decent distance.

    a few days later my dengue blood tests that the GP has originally sent, came back as positive but by then (a week after it all started) I started feeling like human again.

    It’s September now and I’m still feeling very tired, not very concentrated and my hair started shedding in a very noticeable volume, at first I thought it was iron as I was previously anaemic, but I found this blog and I saw that is very common in people that has dengue to have the post-dengue hair shedding problem.

    I’m a bit concerned that some people are experiencing symptoms a year later. If anyone could provide some more information about this that would be great!

    Reply
  28. Hey all, I had dengue at the end of May, and when i complained that i felt awful everyone told me I was being a drama queen haha. Long story short I got to the doctors, said ‘i told you so’ to my family, got over it, but three months later my beautiful waist length ruby hair was falling out everywhere in crazy amounts. I was crying in the shower watching it all falling onto the floor. My hairbrush was coated in a thick pad of hair everytime it touched my head. I took to tying it in a braid and refusing to touch it because it was so upsetting. I had no idea what was happening and why it was falling out until I went to a dermatologist and we figured out it was most likely the dengue.

    For anyone else in the same band wagon dealing with dengue-related shedding etc, my Dr prescribed me some menoxidil 2% spray which slowed the shedding considerably and apparently it helps jolt your follicles out of dormant stage. I also got recommended some hair vitamins with Biotion and folic acid, and got some vitamin B5 oil for the hair lengths. This worked for me, but everyones different so these are just some things you can run by your doctor and see if they might work for you too.

    x

    Reply

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