Alysha Pyrgotis, 27, from Bradford, contracted typhoid fever during a backpacking trip to the remote Indonesian island of Gili Trawangan in June 2024. The former social media marketing executive initially thought her severe symptoms were just a hangover from partying on the tropical island.
Her condition rapidly deteriorated with extreme vomiting, diarrhoea, muscle and bone pain, and delirium. Alysha said: "I was bed bound, in a lot of pain with my muscles and my bones. I was a bit delirious. I couldn't concentrate at all, that's when I started to panic."
Life-threatening diagnosis
Typhoid fever is a bacterial infection that kills over 100,000 people annually worldwide. Without proper treatment, the disease proves fatal for one in five of those infected.
A local doctor who visited Alysha confirmed the diagnosis through blood tests. She spent six days on an intravenous drip in what she described as a "small, cramped medical shack" due to the island's limited healthcare facilities.
Alysha said: "I thought I was going to die, to be honest. It was that bad, I was literally like 'this is it'. I was so annoyed as I was so close to the end of my trip. I'd been ill before, but not that ill before. I was really worried about telling my family - I didn't tell them, actually, because they were having a lot of stress at work at the time. I didn't tell them until after I'd been poorly. I just thought it was not going to end well for me. I was panicking as I knew I had to leave the country soon, I was really, really scared."
She couldn't eat anything for five or six days, with even water causing immediate vomiting. Alysha said: "It was just like my body didn't want anything inside it, it was trying to get rid of everything."
Recovery and travel complications
Despite receiving a negative test result after treatment, Alysha had to leave Indonesia immediately as her visa was expiring. She said: "I had to get out of Indonesia because my visa would run out. I'd spent almost my whole time in Indonesia being sick."
The flight to Bangkok proved horrific while still recovering. Alysha said: "I still was very sick, the flight was horrific. Even the next few days in Bangkok were very difficult, I couldn't do anything. The lasting effects of it were still a couple of weeks of not feeling quite right."
Seven-month journey context
Alysha was in the middle of a seven-and-a-half-month backpacking trip when she contracted the fever. Following a breakup, she made the spontaneous decision to fly to south Thailand in December 2024, then visited Cambodia, Vietnam, Laos, and the Philippines before reaching Indonesia.
She believes she contracted the infection from contaminated food, having eaten extensively from street vendors without proper hygiene precautions. Alysha particularly emphasised the importance of hand washing after contact with stray animals, which she frequently petted during her travels.
Prevention guidance
Alysha said: "I was in the middle of nowhere petting stray animals and then going about my day for hours and hours without access to any water to wash my hands in, I didn't bring any sanitiser either." She warned about street food kept in unsanitary conditions, noting that chicken sits out for hours in hot weather.
According to the NHS, travellers should get vaccinated six to eight weeks before visiting high-risk areas, with protection lasting three years through either injection or tablets. The health agency recommends using bottled or boiled water, eating thoroughly cooked foods, and avoiding ice in drinks, raw or lightly cooked meat, unwashed salad, and dairy products from unpasteurised milk.
Sources used: "mirror", "Yorkshire", "dailymail" Note: This article has been edited with the help of Artificial Intelligence.
