Vagabond Virus

Scott Tind Simmons was at his office in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, when he started to feel sick. By the time he got to bed, his flu-like symptoms gave way to achy joints and feverish dreams. That's when he got suspicious that he had dengue fever, the mosquito-borne virus that, in its deadly form, causes blood to seep from the bloodstream into tissue and eventually from the body's orifices. Several days later, doctors diagnosed the expat aid worker with a milder, non-lethal variation of the disease. Since there are no drugs or vaccines for dengue, Tind Simmons did what some 38,500 infected Cambodians did this year: he drank plenty of water and waited for his bout of "bone-break fever," as the disease is often called, to go away.