This may be a global pandemic it is even suspected to hit the USA.
Dengue is sometimes known as “breakbone fever” – a description that resonated with Braga. “I consider myself to have a high pain tolerance, but the pain was so intense.”
She needed hospital treatment, after deteriorating to the point that she was vomiting and could no longer eat or drink. “Even after being hospitalised for five days, I only gradually started getting better. The fatigue, in particular, didn’t leave me for about 15 days,” she says.
The World Health Organization estimates that 4 billion people are at risk of dengue and related viruses, rising to 5 billion by 2050. The rapid spread over recent years is “an alarming trend”, says WHO director general Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.