This one one of the photos of the accident that was on the cover of the Bali Post newspaper.
I eventually made it home an hour later with a heavy feeling of exhaustion, and relapsed. The virus hit me like a ton of bricks. Dengue hemorrhagic came back more powerfully than before. I was yet again bed ridden.
By this time my friends had left Indonesia, so I was alone in the dark with bleeding gums, excruciating painful headache, and locked-up joints for another week. I felt vulnerable and alone, but after looking at all the dead bodies, I felt lucky to be alive. As soon as I was able to walk again, I went to the airport and flew 20-something hours home to California.
For over two months I couldn’t surf or do much physical activity. The pain in my joints and migraine headaches came and went regularly, limiting my mobility and exposure to daylight. On top of all the physical signs, dengue hemorrhagic creates symptoms that makes victims feel irritable with high anxiety and depression.
Out of the four types of dengue fever, I had the worst kind. It doubled-up with a separate strain of the virus that was lingering in my system from contraction years before. The combo resulted in a hybrid form of the virus called dengue hemorrhagic fever.
Dengue is contracted from the bite of a striped Aedes aegypti mosquito that has previously bitten an infected person. Aedes aegypti thrives around areas with still water. They are often found around over-saturated potted plants and water-runoff pools. They live in both the city and the country, and are most active in the daytime. Aedes aegypti has white bands around its legs and thorax and is usually larger than most other mosquito types.
Aedes aegypti almost killed me. Like any virus, dengue stays dormant in the human body forever, which is why it is so dangerous. You can not catch the same strain of dengue twice, however, if you’re unlucky enough to contract multiple types of dengue, which is what happened in my case, the fever can be fatal.
Dengue fever kills over 22,000 people a year (mostly children), and is prevalent in the tropical regions of South East Asia, Caribbean, Africa, South/Central America, and the Pacific.
My advice to anyone traveling through areas known for hosting mosquito viruses is to do your best to avoid getting bitten. Even if you’re sweating buckets, cover up, use DEET, and mosquito nets. There is currently no treatment or vaccine for dengue fever. If you think you have it, get to the nearest hospital and have them start an IV to avoid becoming severely dehydrated.
I scored Desert Point for a few days before contraction.
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