Dengue, Flood and RainOriginally uploaded by mgharris
I woke this morning to hear what sounded like a political message being sent out over a loudspeaker in a passing van. Listening closely I realised that the announcer was warning residents of Maracajau that there’d been an outbreak of dengue fever and that there was beginning a program to eradicate the larvae.
Suddenly the mosquito bites we were all covered with took on a new significance. There have been 20 recent cases of dengue just in Maracajau, which is pretty much a one-street town…
It’s the rain and floods that have made it worse. Today is the second fully rainy day we’ve had. But it has rained every day, as well as the blazing sunshine.
I don’t much fancy getting dengue. It’s supposed to be like full-on influenza but worse. After two weeks you think you might die and after three you don’t care if you do.
(But you usually don’t.)
We are now covered with the strongest insect repellent the pharmacist would sell us.
I like the tropics in the rain. This is going to be a great place to set a Josh novel. Great fun for me to write, I mean. Let’s hope that translates to the reader!
This entry brought to you via a very lazy author sitting in a hammock, watching rain falling into the pool.
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