BootsnAll Travel Community

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You had Dengue 'which has no cure'? And yet you're here to write - that's good going.

While Dengue is unpleasant, it's unlikely to be fatal for a westerner. Similarly, malaria fatality for westerners is much lower and not just due to medication. We are much better nourished than the majority of the locals where these diseases appear, resulting in a better immune system. Hence, the body can fight the illness more successfully.

Not saying I want either of them, though

Dharker, I am glad your partner is feeling better.

But...I still would have gone to the doc. You were kind of freaking out in your early posts, and often gut instinct is right-on. Especially if it took a couple of weeks for him to feel better? You still may want him to get checked out.

Dengue is not USUALLY fatal for westerners, but its one of those things that can cause serous problems the second exposure,instead of your immune system kicking in, or so I've read.once more, there are a few varieties, some more dangerous than others.

Also, I suspect that Dengue, like many diseases, hits children harder.

I am not one to talk about doctors much. I try to avoid them as much a possible unless the problem is obviously beyond the reach of my immune system.

It happened once in india, when a bacterial infectionn got the better of me, and my glands swole up. An antibiotic cleared that up fast. But I waited a full week as my glands kept getting bigger, and I felt no better.

Then there was the time I ate some beans from a bush, thinking they were domestic, they were green beans, after all. HOw could I go wrong?

Well, domestic green beans CAN be eaten raw. Wild varieties cannot. I found myself in a night of hell, which dissipated. Later the symptons matched that of cyanide poisoning, or was it arsenic... Either way, my system passed it through. The only price I paid was one of the worst nights and days of my life.

BUT..infections thatlast more than a week DO worry me, and its then I go to a doctor, rather than buy an antibiotic and hope I've got it diagnosed correctly.

I think your right, I think if Alex had had a fever for a week I would have made sure he want to the doctors, in the end he had it for two days, then rough for a few more. After the second day we got the antibiotics and by the end of the course he felt a lot better.

I think the worst I manage to do to myself was to re-cook some chicken I'd cooked the night before - rough night.

Or the both ends incident after clams in Boston - not pretty.

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There are a lot of kinds of Malaria. Some of them can cause serious internal damage with the fevers and headaches, which may go away, but the virus stays.

Malaria is caused by a protozoan (Plasmodium sp.)