After feeling too tired and powerless for writing yesterday, I now am a bit better and can give you an update on the ugly fever thing.
After my first visit to the hospital two days ago, I had to go there again yesterday. The fever had gone up to 39.8°C and I really started to get worried. Since the doctor wasnt able to detect fever when I went to the hospital the first day, he had not prescribed any fever-lowering medicine. Now I went back to get something against that.
The treatment was pretty much the same as on the first visit: Measuring the bloodpressure, measuring my weight and having blood drawn for different tests.
After being adamant that I would be prescribed something against the fever, I was given two options: Pills or an injection. I chose the injection, as I tend to forget taking pills most of the time. So I got that injection and went back to my hotel as the blood results take one hour to be analysed.
When I went back I had the appointment with my doctor. He showed me my blood results and then he said the magic words: “Its not the Dengue”. His guess was that its much rather an infection of the throat that could quickly be cured by antibiotics. This was a relief.
Dengue fever is a mosquito-transmitted disease for which no vaccination or medication is exisiting yet. It is characterised by fever, headache, severe pain in the limbs and neck and sometimes also by red dots that appear on the skin. Even though the limb pain and fever would most likely have been the same, I was more than glad not to have Dengue. The reason is, that there are four different types of Dengue exisiting. After having overcome your first infection, your body becomes immune against that certain type of Dengue. In the event of a second infection from a different type of Dengue, the human immune system makes a fatal mistake. It can not distinguish the different types of Dengue and thinks that the body is already immune against that disease. It simply doesnt combat the virus. The second infection is a lot worse than the first for that reason, and can even be deadly, (This is all very simply put and I am not an expert in any way. I just try to explain it in very simple terms therefore: Sorry for any mistakes and feel free to correct me in the comments section)
What this would have meant for me is the following: Would I have had a Dengue infection, I would have waited until I am well again and then I would have returned home as quickly as possible. The risk of being bitten by another mosquito is just too high, and no mosquito repellent is 100% safe. I don’t think I would have enjoyed continue travelling while knowing that any new mosquito bite could be life threatening for me. I had already looked up flights for the end of july and was starting to get used to the thought that this adventure is over already.
Thats why I am incredibly happy that its not the Dengue. Also, since I read into this topic so much over the last two days, I now know how important the protection against mosquitos really is.
So yeah, the adventure continues. Thank you to everyone who helped keeping me positive and strong over the last two days!
Yours
Crazy Ivory
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