For the first time in my life last year, I spent Christmas in hospital – not as a visitor, but as a patient with haemorrhagic dengue fever. It was also my first experience with the illness, and I hope it will be the last.

I had spent the second week of December in Bali, where it was hot and rainy, and then returned to Singapore where the weather was similar and dengue cases were on the rise. I have no idea where I contracted the virus and was bitten by the dreaded Aedes mosquito – it could have been either place or, who knows, both.