Infection

The hot and humid environment of the Malaysian rainforest is a perfect breeding ground for germs and my body had no immunity against them. Be prepared to have infections on your surface wounds if you are like me regarding immunity. At one point I was carrying nine infections on my right leg and ten on left.

Cleaning the wounds in sea water and allowing them to dry did not work; they never dried and a clear plasma like fluid kept oozing. Which probably made it more attractive for the flies and they would often try to sit on my wounds. I tried to disinfect them with Nebanol powder ( Neomycin Sulphate & Bacitracin Zinc ), but the potent antibiotic mixture also failed. The wounds kept getting bigger with time. A colleague was carrying a bottle of calamine lotion, tried that too. Healing seemed to take place in some of the wounds, specially the big old ones. But it did not last long. Following the suggestion of a Malaysian friend, I wiped them with a cotton swab dabbed in tincture iodine mixture. This seemed to work only on fresh scratches. However, the tincture iodine mixture left long lasting dark scars. I'm still carrying them after about 6 months.

After coming back to Bangladesh, I went to a dermatologist. It took only two weeks for the infections to heal after that.