In the wake of renewed call for Bermudians to step up their vigilance to combat the re-appearance of the potentially fatal mosquito-borne dengue fever, a woman who contracted the disease on the Island back in 1947 has spoken of her experience.

Dengue fever was epidemic on the Island during the Second World War and it was shortly afterwards that Dr. Emily Liddell caught the disease while working as a assistant medical officer for the Colonial Medical Service.

Her recollections have given added impetuous to calls now being made for Bermudians to do all they can to keep the Island free from the disease.

Dengue fever has reached epidemic proportions in tropical areas of Southeast Asia and closer to home on Caribbean islands, where two people are reported to have died from the disease in Martinique during the past month.

It is feared it may be only a matter of time before the disease takes a foothold in Bermuda. The Island already plays host to the Aedes aegypti mosquito which can carry the dengue disease.

One woman who knows from first-hand experience what that could mean for the population is Dr. Liddell who caught the disease nearly 60 years ago after returning to Bermuda following the end of the war.

She was working as assistant health officer to Dr. Henry Wilkinson when she began to feel a malaise taking over her life.

Dr. Liddell was aware that there had been a mosquito problem on the Island during the war years.

"There had been a bad epidemic. Some of the cases were so bad that Dr. Wilkinson thought they might even have been yellow fever and an expert from the Tropical Disease Centre was sent out," said Dr. Liddell.

By 1947, when Dr. Liddell returned to the Island, the epidemic had subsided thanks to tough measures spearheaded by Dr. Wilkinson to bring the mosquito population under control.

But while carrying out her duties around the Island, Dr. Liddell was unknowingly bitten by a dengue-carrying mosquito. She was only in her late 20s but started to feel listless and fatigued.

"I had this strange pain, it was an awful pain in my back. I should have realised because dengue fever is also known in some medical books as broken back fever," said Dr. Liddell, who lives on Miamba Lane, Pembroke.

"I went to see a physiotherapist but it did not get any better. I was still working but I didn't feel well, I felt tired and didn't do anything but go to work and go home. I didn't accept party invites or do exercise. If I was in a shop I'd be looking around for a chair to sit down on and when I got home each day I went straight to bed."

These symptoms lasted for three weeks and at night she began to notice she had a slight fever. Then one day while lying in her bath she felt her spleen ? it was bloated and she feared she'd contracted leukaemia.

She went to see Dr. Ronald Shaw at the King Edward VII Memorial Hospital for a blood test. When Dr. Shaw saw the test results he knew exactly what was causing her symptoms.

"He told me I'd got dengue fever. He was used to seeing it as he'd been through the dengue epidemic," said Dr. Liddell.

By this point the fever had almost run its course and Dr. Liddell was recovering.

"It just went away on its own and I didn't hear of any other cases," said Dr. Liddell, who is now in her 80s.

She contacted after reading about the current efforts by the Environmental Health Department to encourage Bermudians to do more to rid the Island of its Aedes aegypti mosquito population before dengue fever arrives.

Environmental Health Officer David Kendell has reported that his team of inspectors are finding that in some neighbourhoods almost every second property is unwittingly harbouring areas of standing water where the mosquitoes can breed.

Mr. Kendell has asked that residents make it a once-a-week habit to tour their property and get rid of any places where standing water has collected, such as on tarpaulins, inside buckets and even in the dishes beneath plant pots.

Dengue fever kills on average five percent of those who contract the disease, although this can be reduced to less than one percent with proper treatment.

Symptoms include high fever, chills, headaches, aching joints and bright red rashes. Anyone who has been badly bitten by mosquitoes and feels there is a particular place that needs to be investigated by Mr. Kendell's team should call his department on 278-4998.