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Malaria, forgotten, rises again. [1]

['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.']

Date: 2023-06-28

As if Florida doesn’t have enough to worry about. In 2008, eight cases of mosquito-borne malaria were identified in Palm Beach County, Fla. And now there have been four more, and one in Texas.

According to the WHO, “mild symptoms of malaria include fever, chills and headaches, while severe symptoms can include difficulty breathing, fatigue, confusion and even seizures.”

Well, allow me to expand a little, because I have had malaria. And not just once, but too many times, when I was living in Nigeria and The Gambia.

There are two main types of malaria: vivax, and falciparum. I’ve had both. I’ve also had a complication called malignant tertian, and at one point my assistant engineer nearly died in The Gambia of cerebral malaria, a different complication. So this is not a disease to take lightly. Let’s talk about the types:

VIVAX

Malaria vivax is endemic in Nigeria. When I first went there, I took prophylactic medicine and used repellent. I saw my co-workers getting bitten — the welts were awful — but strangely, I remained free of any signs. Locals told me I must have a special juju because I wasn’t bitten. This turned out to be nonsense. I was getting bitten, but I’m among the 1-in-100,000 people who don’t react to Anopheles bites. (I do react to Aedes Egyptii, carrier of dengue). So I began to neglect taking precautions.

I woke at 6AM one morning with the most appalling headache I had ever had, together with pain in my joints and a fever. The pain level was such that I had to bite on a stick to stop myself from screaming and at one point I was asking people to kill me to put an end to it. Literally. At 9AM they took me to the clinic where I was diagnosed and injected with chloroquine sulphate, a drug that Donald Trump recommended for Covid-19. Chloroquine has side effects, it’s not a drug to mess with. That evening I went for dinner and began shaking violently, and hallucinating as if I were on a bad shrooms trip.

But I got cured… or did I?

During the following year I had two relapses, while back in the UK. The second relapse I was in a crowded pub, got a headache and began shaking. My friend asked what the problem was. When I said “I think it’s malaria” a large space opened all around us. This is the big problem with Vivax. It’s recurrent. To get rid of it I was in the Hospital For Tropical Diseases for ten days, during which time the drugs to kill it made my hair fall out and my nails stop growing.

FALCIPARUM

Later I lived in The Gambia for a year while installing new radio stations. You may have come across an expression from colonial times: “The white man’s grave”. It refers, specifically, to The Gambia, and the reason is simple: The British sent expedition after expedition up the river Gambia into the interior, but nobody returned. I was to discover why, when the rainy season began.

One day both I and my second engineer woke up with a bit of a fever, and vomiting. We ignored it — after all, I knew about malaria, and these weren’t the ‘right’ symptoms. Soon we became worse, consulted a doctor, and were treated for malaria falciparum. I was kind-of blase about it because Vivax had been so much worse.

We both had it a couple more times and then I had the Malignant Tertian form, which is agonising. And then my assistant, Tim, got cerebral malaria and spent a week in intensive care. So as you can see, Falciparum is not to be messed with, either. At least it’s not recurrent like Vivax.

FLA/TX?

I’ve researched but have not found out what type has been infecting people recently in the USA. And this is important. So, I have requested this information from the CDC. I’ll report back.

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[1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/6/28/2178221/-Malaria-forgotten-rises-again

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