And Now, Something New To Worry About: Dengue Fever

I had a constellation of symptoms that put me on the severe end of classical dengue, said Howard Gold, a member of Beth Israel's Division of Infectious Diseases and one of the physicians who treated me. Rashes spread over my torso and arms and down my legs, turning them the color of ripe raspberries. My platelet count plummeted to 48,000 (the normal range is 150,000 to 440,000), and my white cell count dropped to 2.4 (vs. a healthy 4 to 11). I also had liver abnormalities, with enzymes elevated to about 10 times the top end of the normal range.

My room became a medical theater, with a constant flow of fascinated interns, residents, fellows and attending physicians, few of whom had seen dengue in the flesh. One asked if he could photograph my legs, and not for their sex appeal.

"I can't recall another case, certainly not one as spectacular as yours," Gold told me later. "People were impressed and, knowing it can be quite serious and sometimes fatal, you were a case we were all following with tremendous interest and concern."

The aches and fever got worse before they got better. But by the following Saturday morning, I was ready to go home, seven pounds lighter and exhausted for weeks still to come.

Meanwhile, back in the Cook Islands, the owners of our Aitutaki hotel both came down with dengue after we left, and authorities launched a controversial chemical insecticide-spraying program.

"Everyone speaks of it as a disease you do not want to get," said John Woods, editor of the Cook Islands News, whose wife is recovering from dengue. "It's wrong to pretend that it's not here, and that it's not a threat. It definitely is."

I know.

Pamela Ferdinand is a freelance journalist based in Cambridge, Mass.

When a fellow tourist came down with dengue fever, a writer figured: What are the odds of getting that? As it turns out, pretty high.