Dengue Fever Spirits Have Given Fair Warning

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Dengue Fever Spirits Have Given Fair Warning

Wednesday August 3, Donna went to bed with a fever the previous night, and woke with a fever, aches, flu symptoms – not a good sign in a dengue fever area. Stony, our North Carolina coworker, and Suntea, a Karen coworker borrowed a truck and we all went to the hospital. By the time we got there, I was feeling worse and worse, so both of us had blood drawn to test for dengue fever. We were both positive!!! Locals and foreigners have lived here for years and have not contracted dengue fever. We were in Mae Sot and contracted dengue, both of us, the second week at the same time!!!

Dengue is kind of a two part disease, the first part, dengue fever, for us, was 2.5 days of feeling miserable to very miserable (fever, head aches, joint pain, vomiting, …). When the fever leaves, and you feel good again, the dangerous possibly life threatening symptoms might begin. One of the main effects of dengue fever is to reduce platelet count in your blood. When the fever stops, the platelet count can keep going down which can lead to hemorrhaging in various organs (be careful brushing teeth and picking you nose).

For my last blood work in USA, the acceptable range for platelets was 140 – 415, mine was 181. The doctor on Day 1 said he wanted to keep platelets above 100, my count was 107, Donna's slightly higher.

The following days we had blood drawn daily, and tested, once platelets stopped going down, and start going up, and we had not developed hemorrhagic symptoms, then we would be on the road to recovery and leaving the hospital. The turn around did not happen fast, and after the fever left, were feeling good and ready to get out. Every day we waited for the results.

Day 5 – Roger's count was 25, Donna's 32, how low can we go, still no symptoms (headaches, diarrhea, vomiting).

Day 6 – Roger's count was 11, Donna's 36 (a turn around for Donna!!!!!)

Day 7 – Roger's count was 7, still no symptoms, apparently the count can go very low, the doctor said other patients do get this low but the usual is down to around 50. We had great hopes for a turn around, the “platelet count” equals platelets / 1000 per so much blood, so the count can go below 1, and still have platelets.

Day 7, second blood draw – Roger's count was 9. At least not down, but kind of a sideways motions. One more day to make sure it is going up.

Day 8, Roger's count was 14. We get discharged today but need to stay in town for 5 more days, taking medicine to prevent hemorrhaging, and then get another blood test. If the platelets are near normal, then we can travel. In the meantime: only soft food, no fried food, no spicy food, no alcohol, no bike riding, no trauma, no sudden moves, no thai boxing, no sword fighting (I made up those last two but I am sure the doctor would agree).

There are four strains of dengue fever. If you contract one, contracting another form will result in a much more severe reaction. We barely survived the first encounter.

We got the disease the second week we were here.
We both got the disease.
We were diagnosed with the disease the same day.
We both had unusually bad reactions and slow recoveries.

Any one of the above occurring is unusual. Given all of the above happened to us, it seems like the dengue fever spirits have given us a strong warning. We are taking heed and are leaving their territory, forever. Such a decision eliminates visiting large parts of the planet, but the world is a big place, plenty of places to go. Maybe back to the arctic where one can see the life threatening creatures, the bear and the moose, that might threaten you life.

Our six month planned stay in this area with Border Green Energy Team ended in less than two weeks. Got to be flexible on these projects, few turn out as planned. There may be a couple more postings in this blog but our project here has ended and we are figuring out how and when to vacate the tropics.

Bike to Burma Border

Saturday we biked 3 miles to the border with Burma. The ride was pretty easy on a four lane highway without a lot of traffic. Spent most of the day there wandering through the market and sitting in the shade of the bridge.

Thai border guards -- not much to do but tolerate touristas like us

Border walkway, a good place to buy cartons of cigarettes, not sure why but the sales hawkers are there.

More tourists.

A huge market on the Thai side of the border, jade and I suppose fake jade; and all kinds of consumer products and packaged food items. Somewhere there are jade traders but we did not see any.

"Friendship Bridge" and colorful apartments in Burma.

Mae Sot Diversity

Lonely Planet says: "Despite its remote location and relatively small size, Mae Sot is amoung the most culturally diverse cities in Thailand. Walking down the streets of the town, you will see a fascinating ethnic mixture - Burmese men in their loongyi (sarongs), Hmong and Karen women in traditional hill-tribe3 dress, bearded Muslims, Thai army rangers, and foreign NGO workers" (the NGO workers are us).

We agree with Lonely Planet - this place has an amazing variety in dress and ethnic features. We are not quite experienced enough to discerne what is what and who is who. Mae Sot has an official documented population of about 40,000 but the undocumented may drive this up to 80,000 we have been told. A busy place with lots of action.

The woman with the baby has thanaka cream on her face, and her babys face. Thanaka is a cosmetic paste made from ground wood of a thanaka tree (several varieties that must be 35 years old). Burmese women have used the paste for 2,000 years.

No Top Sheet Needed

July 24, 5am, woke up in Mae Sot in the office bedroom of BGET, no A/C, fan was blowing, no top sheet (definitely no blanket), if I thought about it, I could feel a slight coolness in the air. Mae Sot is cooler than Bangkok.

Two days ago in Bangkok - besides getting bus tickets to Mae Sot, and exchanging some dollars for baht, we spent the day walking around in the heat - everyone seemed to be wilted. Could not tell if we were suffering from jet lag or heat exposure. Took a water taxi, saw great temple area, learned how to say "thank you" in Thai from a coconut street vendor, walked through Chinatown, had cooked lunch and dinner at street vendors, of which there are thousands (got the guy at the hotel to write in Thai that were were vegetarians). Ended the day taking the subway home and collapsing at 9pm. Bangkok is a busy place!!!!

Yesterday, 9 hour bus ride to Mae Sot. Good ride, upstair in a double decker, had A/C, did not have loud music (or any music), had slow bus driver. There were two other old farts on the bus besides me. One from Holland who is retired and living in a small town in Thailand - it is cheaper, and warmer, than Holland. He is never going back. The other, a man from Ireland, who has been living in Bangkok for ten years teaching business. He has some things in common with us - he is a vegetarian, has climbed some 14ners, and been many places in the world. He is helping to support a school in Mae Sot, Love and Care, that houses and educates 80 Burmese refugees ages 13 to 22. There food budget is for 60 students. Since there are currently 80 students, the daily food budget for each student has been reduced to $0.30 US - not enough. He had a health check done on the students and most are suffering from malnutrition. He is trying to raise money for food and is teaching them how to get the most nutrition for the moey spent.

Stony, the BGET volunteer from North Carolina who has been in Mae Sot over a year, met us in Mae Sot at the bus station. Went out for dinner, food street stall, got pad thai, 20 baht each (about $0.60 US each). Slept well till 5am today. Today, Stony gives a tour of Mae Sot.

17 flying hours - 25 hours door to door

LA to Seattle to Narita Japan to Bangkok: 3 flights; 17 flying hours; 25 door to door hours; 5 movies; 8 cups of coffee - we arrived at hotel in Bangkok 1 am local time. It was a great day of traveling.

After planning this trip for almost a year, taking a class on Renewable Energy for the Developing World, getting Visas, air tickets, innoculations, etc., it is good to be here.

Will do some walking around Bangkok today, and take a 8 hours bus ride to Mae Sot, our final destination, tomorrow.

Our Work In Thailand – How We Got Involved

In 2009 I (Roger) took an online class and a workshop in Solar Electric (photo voltaic) Design and Installation from Solar Energy International (SEI), www.solarenergy.org, a nonprofit educational organization based in Western Colorado.

SEI is has connections with international organizations promoting renewable energy and sustainability. Since I am always looking for projects for us (Donna and myself), I contacted several of these organizations to see if they could benefit from our help. Border Green Energy Team (www.bget.org) responded and we have been in contact with them since August of 2009 planning our visit in July 2010.

Border Green Energy (BGET) is based in Mae Sot, Thailand, about 3 miles from the border with Burma (Myanmar). BGET provides hands-on appropriate technology training and financial support to village innovators in ethnic minority areas on both sides of the Thai/Burma border.

BGET works in:

- Improving sustainability of Thai solar home systems through local technician trainings.
- Refugee camp renewable energy trainings.
- Community micro-hydro construction and O&M.
- Solar electricity construction and O&M trainings for medical clinics on the border. 

There are tens of thousands of refugees in Thailand. They are mainly people of the Karen ethnic group who have left Burma because of violence and persecution. July 20, 2010, we fly to Bangkok, stay there two nights, and then take a bus to Mae Sot. We have never been to Thailand before.

We are open to questions and comments on our blog, our work, how to volunteer, or anything else.