LOOKING at this photo of Belinda Lee posing happily with the swans in a Swiss lake, you'll never guess that under that smile, she was wrecked by severe diarrhoea and fatigue brought on by dengue fever.

The MediaCorp actress-host had been bitten by the Aedes mosquito in East Timor earlier, in mid-February.

She was there with a producer to film the second season of the infotainment programme, Find Me A Singaporean.

But the 31-year-old didn't even realise she had dengue until a blood test confirmed it two weeks later.

By then, she had already suffered the worst of high fever, stomachache and severe lethargy while filming in her next destination, Switzerland.

Swiss doctors, probably unfamiliar with the tropical illness, could not figure out what was wrong with her - except to say she had a viral infection.

Still, her body managed to fight the dengue virus on its own, Belinda told The New Paper last Saturday.

'It is a miracle that I survived with no proper medication, rest and hospitalisation.'

Looking back, the jet-setting babe said she developed fever and diarrhoea after returning home from a two-day East Timor trip that was shortened because of the political chaos there.

Initially, she thought it was just food poisoning caused by poor hygiene in the area she visited.

She said she had suspected dengue, but the doctor she saw in Singapore 'ruled out the possibility'.

'He knew I'd been flying and I told him where I went, but he said it's probably a viral infection or flu. There were no signs apart from diarrhoea and fever.'

So she flew off with another producer to Switzerland, where she continued to be ill during filming.

'When the wind blew, my bones started to hurt. But I thought it was probably just the wind,' she recalled.

'I was feeling very weak during makeup, and my feet were so tired that I thought I'd collapse any time.'

BELINDA went to three different doctors in Switzerland, but 'no one could tell me what's wrong with me'.

After all, dengue fever is a tropical disease more common to Asia and Africa.

Singapore alone had more than 8,800 cases last year.

Instead, the Swiss doctors gave her painkillers and 'orange-flavoured' vitamin C tablets.

Even when Belinda heard from colleagues that the producer with whom she travelled to East Timor was hospitalised for dengue fever, she believed the Swiss doctors.

'I got all the symptoms, but all the doctors told me it was nothing and I was naive enough (to believe them).

Not once did she fear for her life though.

She said: 'I think I'm actually quite tough, I won't allow small little things to affect me too much.'

Instead, she put on her best cheerful face for the camera - despite feeling weak and fighting a 'very bad tummyache'.

When she finally got home a week later, she had almost recovered.

But her family insisted that she go for a blood test for 'peace of mind', she said.

The results confirmed she had dengue fever.

'I was a bit shocked (to find out). I sort of knew all along, but doctors didn't confirm it... I was confused and truly puzzled, I didn't know what was going on.'

Now fully recovered, Belinda has flown off to Uganda in East Africa for her next assignment - just three days after coming back from Mongolia.

Her new show, Find Me A Singaporean 2, debuts at 8pm tomorrow on Channel U.

Belinda said: 'I'm glad that it's over, I don't believe in harping over things.

'What most important is that I'm alive and kicking and I'm still travelling about. That's more important than harping over which doctor (to blame) and how come (things turned out) like that.'

This article was first published in The New Paper on Apr 15, 2008.