Malaria Mix-up

What is the deadliest animal in Africa? A raging lion? Stampeding elephant? Roaring rhinoceros?

Nope – it’s the malaria-bearing mosquito. (Car drivers are #2 on the list…)

On Tuesday evening, I was reading a magazine article written by a local doctor, about malaria.  I read, “Chloroquin – not recommended. It is better than nothing but a significant number of users will get malaria.”

 Hmm – chloroquin – the name sounded eerily familiar, so I checked my medicine bottle and sure enough, I was the owner of a bottle of chloroquin from Shopper’s Drug Mart in Chatham.

I will admit to a high-level of paranoia about contracting malaria – not just the short-term illness and interruption of my teaching plans, but also the long-term impact – the end of my blood donor days. Canada won’t take blood from anyone who has ever had malaria.

I’ve picked up some mosquito tips from Nancy:

·         The ones that carry malaria don’t make the high-pitched irritating whine we know so well – they are, in other words, Silent But Deadly

·         In order to get malaria, the mosquito must first bite someone with malaria, then it gets passed on to the next victim

·         The ones that bite during the day are less likely to be malaria-bearing

I haven’t seen a mosquito bite me yet, but I’ve had two obvious bites, which I assume were mosquitoes, and a few unexplained itches. (And don’t ask how many times I have THOUGHT a mosquito was near me!) So finding out I have been more or less unprotected, was unwelcome news!

I remembered that my travel doctor had recommended a particular medication, one that gave vivid dreams to about 25% of users, and a smaller percentage would have some kind of psychotic break with reality, but we agreed that I was, to all appearances, sane, and most of the seriously afflicted had mental issues to begin with.

But when I read the medication print-out from Shopper’s, it didn’t say anything about dreams, which I thought odd, but I was so busy preparing to leave, who had time to double-check?

Subsequent Internet research on Wednesday morning confirmed my mounting suspicions – according to the Center for Disease Control, in big bold print: “Note: Chloroquine is NOT an effective antimalarial drug in Malawi and should not be taken to prevent malaria in this region.“ Great – good to know.

So in summary, I have been diligently taking a useless medication since mid-November.

My sister, Karen, back in Canada, contacted Shopper’s Drug Mart, who confirmed that they had made a mistake. I managed to find a pharmacist here who had some of the recommended medication, Mefloquine. I also picked up a self-diagnosis kit and one round of treatment, in case I get sick.

Here’s some of my anti-malaria battle tools:

As a side note, I’ve been having strange dreams for about 5 days in a row, which I had chocked up to the medication, but now have to attribute to my own wild imagination. Last night I dreamt that I suffered a bunch of psychedelic dream experiences because of the new medication! Night time is kinda interesting these days.