I had dengue fever three years ago, in Chang Mai, Thailand. I had ten days of high fever and terrible migrains that didn't allow me to sleep, it was very painful. One night my boyfriend took me to the hospital and there the doctor began to talk of dengue fever, he made blood test to see if the plasters had raised, they had, but not enough to be sure of dengue. I felt better and went back home. The day after I felt bad again and we said, let's go to the acupuncturist. She put the needles and I began to sweat a lot, amazing, I was soaking in sweat after one minute, she had told me it would happen, I think she used a technique to treat the fever. When the needles were taken off, I was a new girl, I couldn't believe it, I felt super! but by the end of the day I felt bad again. Erik went to talk to the acupuncturist and she told him that I would need to go to another hospital, that uses also traditional methods, and have water put in my blood. I didn't want to go, but Erik insisted, so we did. That was luck, because when there they made me a new blood test, plasters had grown so much that I was very close to enter coma! They put water in the blood, a lot, and gave me pills to sleep, and this was all I needed. I must have been very dehydrated, I drank a lot the days before, but went continuously to the bathroom.
It was quite an experience to stay in that hospital, very funny. The family and friends of the patients put a sarong on the floor and there they slept and ate, they stay there all the time to keep company to their sick relative, it was in fact a lot of talking and laughing and snoreing in the night, all the contrary than the aseptic hospitals we are used to. The food they gave was awful (also thai food can be too extreme for us...), so Erik kept taking for me pizza because I'm italian and thought I would appreciate, ah ah! very sweet, I couldn't even smell it, I didn't eat for I think three weeks. I also couldn't see well, everything was blurred, but my eyesight recovered in time.
When I was dismissed from the hospital I asked a declaration of what I had to have the money refunded back home and they refused to declare I had had dengue fever, they wrote I had epathitis which isn't true of course. Thai authorities must have told them to not declare how much dengue there is not to scare away tourists.
So this is the story. When back home my mother (doctor) insisted to take me to a friend doctor who's specialized in tropical disease and he was literally drewling when he said I had had an emorragic form, which is the worst and that I should never go back there (of course I will). I had one hundred blood tests mainly to reassure my mother and everything was fine. In fact I was feeling super, I even thought that this high fever had done me good, burning away some crap inside.