If global warming and the proliferation of tiger mosquitoes raise fears of the development of dengue fever epidemics in Metropolitan France, it is already a reality in the French West Indies. Sylvie, who lives in Martinique, was affected by the tropical disease and confides in the symptoms she developed.
- Sylvie contracted dengue fever during a week on vacation in Guadeloupe. She showed symptoms less than a week after the mosquito bite.
- For the first 5 days, she was bedridden with severe headache and eye aches, body aches, chills and loss of appetite.
- Recovery after dengue fever is long. It takes between 2 and 3 weeks to recover and feel less tired.
Last April, the Committee for the Anticipation of Health Risks (COVARS) alerted to a probable multiplication of dengue fever cases in mainland France in the years to come due, among other things, to global warming and the expansion of tiger mosquitoes. But for the French West Indies, this disease which is rampant there in epidemic mode is already a very current risk. Sylvie, who lives in Trois-Îlets in Martinique, was also one of the victims of this virus belonging to the Flaviviridae family, transmitted by mosquitoes of the genus Aedes.
Dengue fever: “I woke up in the night with a headache and sore eyes”
If Sylvie has been living in Martinique since August 2022, it was during a week’s vacation in Guadeloupe in April that she contracted dengue fever. The first symptoms appeared as soon as he returned from the neighboring island. “I woke up in the night from Saturday to Sunday with a headache. I also had pain in my eyes and orbits as well as body aches. I felt like I was cold inside my body and warm outside”remembers the 50-year-old accountant. “I got up to take a Doliprane thinking that would be enough…”. But the next morning, the headaches and eye aches were still there, as were the chills.
On Monday, her husband and son developed similar symptoms. The family, unable to take the car, then called SOS Médecins. A blood test was carried out and confirmed that it was indeed dengue fever. “This corresponds, because the incubation period of the disease is 5 to 7 days and on Sunday, we were at Pointe des Châteaux, a town where there was an epidemic focus”.
Dengue Fever Symptom: “It’s Like The Body Goes Through Several Stages In Seconds”
Dengue really knocks patients out. Sylvie was unable to do anything but sleep for the first 5 days. “When you have dengue, you sweat and then you get cold… it’s as if the body goes through several stages in a few seconds”, she recalls. But what made him suffer the most were the pain in his eyes and orbits. “You’re really not well. I spent my time sleeping. That was the only thing that worked”.
Her 13-year-old son presented with a slightly different form of dengue fever. “In children, the symptoms are generally less severe. Unlike my husband and I who were continuously sick, he was in phases. For example, he had bad headaches at night, but it was better the next morning and it started again at the end of the afternoon”explains the mother.
The end of dengue fever is marked by a rash. “These little pimples don’t scratch too much” , she says. However, that doesn’t really mean the end of the trouble.
Recovery after dengue: “it takes between 15 days and 3 weeks”
“Dengue fever is a very tiring disease. It takes between 15 days and 3 weeks to recover”indicates the resident of Trois-Îlets. “In addition, as you don’t eat because you have no appetite, you don’t regain strength. It’s a vicious circle”, she adds. Rest, Doliprane, paying attention to your diet and taking vitamins to boost the body are the only ways to fight against the disease.
“When you think it’s the bite of a tiny mosquito that puts you out of order like that, it’s not cool. Especially since there are 4 variants of dengue fever, one of which is serious since it gives the hemorrhagic form. So just because you caught the virus once doesn’t mean you can’t develop the disease again”laments Sylvie.
Indeed, there are four serotypes of the dengue virus strain: DENV-1, DENV-2, DENV-3 and DENV-4. Thus, immunity acquired in response to infection by one of the variants confers protective immunity only against the latter. It is thus possible to be infected by each of them during his life.
