St. Martin/Sint Marteen - dengue fever

On Sat, 07 Feb 2004 18:18:50 GMT, "Michael"
<mike_higgins@worldnet.att.net> wrote:


>You have more to worry about than denue in St Martin, like second hand
>smoke! EVERYWHERE!
>

Qu'est que-ce "denue"?

If you're all that worried about secondhand smoke, stay home. You can
get plenty of it there, and, no doubt, most likely you have.

On 5 Feb 2004 14:59:40 GMT, Juliana L Holm <jholm@osf1.gmu.edu> wrote:

>
>Important. Wear a deet-based insect repellent when visiting the Caribbean,
>especially rainforests and such, and especially in the evening.
>
>Dengue is always some risk in these places. My sister got it when she lived
>in Puerto Rico. It is nasty and there is a small death rate, but it is usually
>survivable.
>
>Above all, if you become sick within a few weeks after returning from the
>Caribbean, or ANY travel, tell your doctor about the travel, so that you
>might be correctly treated.

I got dengue fever while a Peace Corps Volunteer in Grenada.
Fortunately it was not the hemorrhagic kind, which has a substantial
death rate. However, it still wasn't any fun at all, and we did have
one fatality on the island when the disease developed the secondary
complication of pneumonia.

I was visited shortly after my recovery by a college classmate who was
doing a medical internship in New York City. He said that they had
had a case of dengue fever in their hospital in NYC that baffled them
for several days. Finally, when all else had failed, someone thought
to ask the patient what he had, and he told them it was dengue. He
was Puerto Rican and had just come back from going home for the
Holidays. So Juliana's advice in the last paragraph is spot on.

Oh, and my classmate developed the disease after returning to NYC
also!

Take it easy,
Ron Knight

Ron Knight wrote:
> On 5 Feb 2004 14:59:40 GMT, Juliana L Holm <jholm@osf1.gmu.edu> wrote:
>
>
>>Important. Wear a deet-based insect repellent when visiting the Caribbean,
>>especially rainforests and such, and especially in the evening.
>>
>>Dengue is always some risk in these places. My sister got it when she lived
>>in Puerto Rico. It is nasty and there is a small death rate, but it is usually
>>survivable.
>>
>>Above all, if you become sick within a few weeks after returning from the
>>Caribbean, or ANY travel, tell your doctor about the travel, so that you
>>might be correctly treated.
>
>
> I got dengue fever while a Peace Corps Volunteer in Grenada.
> Fortunately it was not the hemorrhagic kind, which has a substantial
> death rate. However, it still wasn't any fun at all, and we did have
> one fatality on the island when the disease developed the secondary
> complication of pneumonia.
>
> I was visited shortly after my recovery by a college classmate who was
> doing a medical internship in New York City. He said that they had
> had a case of dengue fever in their hospital in NYC that baffled them
> for several days. Finally, when all else had failed, someone thought
> to ask the patient what he had, and he told them it was dengue. He
> was Puerto Rican and had just come back from going home for the
> Holidays. So Juliana's advice in the last paragraph is spot on.
>
> Oh, and my classmate developed the disease after returning to NYC
> also!
>
> Take it easy,
> Ron Knight
>

The incubation period is 4-14 days.

Juliana L Holm wrote:

> it is usually survivable.

I got it after coming home from a vacation in Fiji in 1999.

They say that there is 4 types of Dengue fever, and that whether or
not you get the hemmoragic kind can depend on if you've gotten dengue
in the past (and which type).

Seems that if you get, say, type "A" then the next time, if you get
type "B", then your body will not mount the correct defense and you
can die.

Basically, if you've gotten it once, you need to be extra carefull not
to get it again (or hope that it's the same type).

Does anyone have more up-to-date info about Dengue?