Instead of becoming a superhero, I got dengue

I always imagined it would be like the movies. A guy ventures somewhere and gets bitten by an insect and he falls sick for a day.

He wakes up the next day feeling terrific. He looks in the mirror and his scrawny body has become all athletic and muscular.

He suddenly finds himself with superhuman strength and abilities that match the insect that had bitten him and caused him to get sick.

He becomes a superhero.

What happened to me was slightly different. I was bitten by an insect, a mosquito to be exact. And I was sick for a day.

But instead of waking up feeling terrific the next day with superhuman mosquito strength, I just continued to be sick.

I had an extremely high fever for two days, vomiting and body aches. It’s been a week now and I’ve been in hospital for three days.

Instead of becoming a superhero, I ended up a dengue statistic.

I remember many years ago, dengue, although not that rare, was not a disease afflicting almost everyone. I mean, I am a first-time sufferer of dengue.

But that is not case now. Almost the entire ward I am in at the hospital is filled with dengue patients. The nurses say it has been like this since the start of the year.

I have found out that I have friends and relatives who have had dengue not once, not twice, and not even three times, but four times!

What seems to be the problem that is causing dengue to be so widespread these days? Awareness couldn’t be any higher because everyone knows about dengue.

For one, we do know that in a tropical country like Malaysia, you can never eliminate mosquitoes totally.

We also know that our surroundings need to always be clean so that, although we can’t eliminate mosquitoes altogether, at least we minimise their breeding.

Well, basically, that’s all you need to do. You all knew all this already, didn’t you? See? I told you, awareness is already very high.

So what is the deal then that dengue is becoming such an epidemic? I am strongly of the opinion that it is laissez faire attitude that is causing it.

We know that we need to keep our surrounding clean. But do we really prioritise it? Do we clear the drains, our planted pots, barbecue pits, etc, everyday?

And even if we do, there is bound to be someone in our neighbourhood who might take it likely. And that is more than enough to cause harm.

The lesson here is very simple. Everything we know about curbing dengue just needs to actually be implemented properly by everyone. That’s all.

I’ll be discharged tomorrow. Thank God. – August 15, 2014.

* This is the personal opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of The Malaysian Insider.