Dengue Voices

This story represents one person's experience with dengue disease. It is important to talk with your doctor if you are experiencing any symptoms that could be dengue disease.

My name is Kevin, I’m 30 years old, and I live in Buenos Aires, Argentina. I work in a company focused on diagnosing infectious diseases. In April 2023, I got dengue.

It all started on what should have been a normal morning at the gym. But that day, I felt different. I didn’t have the strength I normally have. I wasn’t able to lift the same weight or move with my usual speed. When I came home and sat down to work, I noticed the weakness even more. Simple things, like getting up to grab coffee, felt unusually difficult.  A sense of overall weakness washed over me.

I didn’t think it was dengue because I didn’t see any bite on my body. That made it hard to connect the symptoms with the virus. Later in the evening, everything got worse. That night I realized I couldn’t sleep at all. My whole body hurt and I was sweating.

That’s when I began to worry.

The next morning, almost without having slept, I went with my mother to the emergency room. They did blood tests, and after a couple of hours of waiting, they confirmed it was dengue. The doctors told me there was no specific treatment, so they sent me home and told me I needed to rest, hydrate, and come back once or twice a week for more blood tests until my results returned to normal.  

During those days, I couldn’t work. I couldn’t concentrate because of the pain and how unwell I felt. All I could do was take the medication, drink fluids, eat properly, and take care of myself while waiting for the symptoms to improve. Over time, the fever went down, the body pain decreased, and eventually I was able to return to my normal routine.

Having dengue shifted my perspective on how the disease could impact me.

I thought I knew enough about dengue - how it spreads, how it’s prevented, how it’s transmitted – but I didn’t expect it to be so sudden or that the symptoms could become so bad. In my case, the pain was unlike anything I’d felt before. It’s not something I would wish on anyone.

I’d like to emphasise that dengue has no limits. There isn’t a stereotype of who can get dengue - it can happen to anyone. It doesn’t matter who you are, what you do, or where you live.* Anyone can be affected, and that’s what I feel is important to share.

To people living in places where dengue and mosquitoes are present, I would recommend staying cautious and taking prevention seriously. And more than that, I would encourage them to share what they know. First take precautions for yourself but also share them with others - you educate others by setting an example.  

*Anyone who lives in an area with risk of dengue is at risk for infection.¹

C-ANPROM/INT/QDE/0349 | March 2026