What Does Dengue Fever Feel Like? A Personal Story of Survival and Recovery
Key takeaways:
A mosquito bite exposed Hilary Morse to dengue fever in 2022.
Hilary’s symptoms included a headache, nausea, joint pain, and fatigue.
Hilary recovered in a few weeks, but her headache and joint pain lingered for months.
Hilary Morse vividly remembers the moment she realized something was wrong.
The publicist from Los Angeles was visiting Sayulita, Mexico, in 2022, when she began feeling excruciating pain. Her eyes became swollen and sensitive to light, and her head throbbed with a headache.
“I felt like my head was being crushed by a device,” says Hilary, now 55. “It was the worst headache I’ve ever had.”
Soon, she felt nauseated, broke out in a rash, and could barely move because of joint pain in her hands. A friend who had experienced dengue fever in Thailand recognized the symptoms and urged her to get medical help.
Hilary went to a walk-in clinic in Mexico, where a doctor ran a blood test. It confirmed she had dengue fever, a mosquito-borne illness caused by one of four dengue viruses. The doctor said there wasn’t much she could do except rest and stay hydrated. Meanwhile, Hilary grew sicker than she had ever been.
Why dengue fever is making headlines
Dengue is common in tropical and subtropical regions. It spreads through the Aedes aegypti mosquito, which is most active during daylight hours. Hilary suspects she caught it after being bitten repeatedly while helping a friend pot a plant outdoors.
Her case is not unique. She was one of thousands affected by dengue fever that year, part of a troubling trend.
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Dengue fever is making headlines because cases are rising worldwide. The World Health Organization reports a tenfold increase in dengue incidence from 2000 to 2019. The CDC says that in 2024, more than 9.7 million dengue fever cases were reported in the Americas — the highest on record. Experts blame climate change, growing cities, and global travel for the increase.
What dengue fever feels like
Symptoms of dengue fever typically start to show 3 to 10 days after being bitten by an infected mosquito. People often experience the following symptoms:
Joint pain
Headache
Nausea
Vomiting
Muscle aches
Eye pain
Some people have mild symptoms. Hilary says hers were brutal. She had every symptom. She felt nauseated and had a rash of small red bumps on her torso. Her joints ached badly.
Her doctor prescribed her cyclobenzaprine, a muscle relaxer, but Hilary says it barely helped with the pain.
Friends suggested homeopathic treatments. Hilary drank tea made from neem tree leaves, known for their antiviral properties.
But she remembers feeling as though she couldn’t eat anything. Her weight dropped 10 lbs, to 95 lbs, while she was sick. She threw up, unable to keep down any food or drink.
When her condition worsened, she called her doctor, who visited her home and gave her an IV. The fluids, which Hilary thinks included electrolytes and sodium, helped her regain some strength.
“When I called the doctor to get the IV, I was scared because I felt like I was wasting away,” she says. “I was bedbound for a week.”
Bright sunlight burned her eyes, and her blinding headache made it hard to sleep. The doctor prescribed a sleep aid, which helped. She chugged coconut water to stay hydrated.
It took Hilary about 3 weeks to recover enough to regain her appetite and start to return to her active lifestyle.
“I got my appetite back, and I wanted to go surfing and walking,” she says. But even as Hilary grew stronger, some symptoms from the mosquito-borne illness lingered.
Taking steps to avoid dengue fever again
Once she started feeling better, Hilary joined a dengue fever support group online. Other members warned her that symptoms could last even after recovery. When she returned to Los Angeles, her joints were still achy. Acupuncture provided some relief, but it took time for her joint pain and headaches to completely go away.
“It took a few months until I felt normal,” Hilary says.
Determined to avoid another infection, Hilary now takes mosquito prevention seriously. She uses mosquito repellent and takes precautions in areas where dengue fever is common. She plans to wear long pants and socks whenever she visits high-risk areas.
Hilary is building a house in Mexico, and she has designed it with mosquito proofing in mind. She is skipping a swimming pool to avoid attracting mosquitoes and will install screens on all windows. “I don’t want anything that’s going to [draw] more mosquitoes,” she says.
She says she hopes her story inspires others to take dengue fever prevention seriously. She recommends wearing protective clothing and using effective mosquito repellent if you’re traveling to areas where dengue fever is a risk.
“I hope I never get dengue fever again,” she says.
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