In Reply to: demam berdarah posted by dhani on Sunday, 31. March 2002 at 17:52 Bali Time:
Demam berdarah can translate literally as dengue fever, and as any number of other similar illnesses.
Basically when you go to many doctors here with a fever, they'll diagnose you having "demam berdarah". At the risk of sounding condescending, what it means to me is they don't really have a clue. I usually end up deciding that a blood test is what I need and then asking the good doc to write me out a piece of paper to take to the lab to test me for things I suspect I have.
Another good, all round fav that you hear tossed around all the time is "masuk angin", which covers everything from the common cold to accidental amputation.
Cheers, FB.