Malaria...

I have returned from another week long field visit only to spend my first 24 hours back in Tamale in the “john”. I figured that I just had eaten some questionable food and it would pass in a few hours (no pun intended). During the week I had a headache for a few days bad enough for me to actually take some Advil which is actually saying something because I will usually try and wait it out. But it subsided by Friday so I thought I was fine.

By about 3:30 on Saturday I knew something was not right. Besides my regular trips to the toilet my temperature shot from normal to 103ºF in thirty minutes and I had a mind splitting headache. Ten minutes later it felt as if I had either run 20 kilometers or was beaten with a stick as my muscles and joints were really sore. It was uncomfortable to even move. I varied from unbearably hot and sweaty to feeling cold and shivering about every 15 minutes. I’ll I wanted to do is make the bad virus stop but was nearly immobile. My best explanation is like a summation of every cold or flu you have every had all starting at the same time starting out of the blue and followed by a thorough beating. It really is like getting blindsided. Luckily for me Rene was at the house and knew what to do. He called one of his friends who has a truck and they took me to a doctor he knows in town. As it was now after 5 pm all the clinics were closed and would be until Monday so there was no way to get a blood smear to confirm if it was malaria. Luckily the doctor prescribed me the malaria drug of choice and by 6:30 the battle between virus and drug was on. By 9 pm I was feeling significantly better and my fever had dropped a bit. I slept that night from 10pm-9am the next morning. As I didn’t have a blood smear I can’t say for if it was malaria but if this wasn’t malaria I don’t want to know what is. If it was getting malaria really sucked. But it would have been way worse if I couldn’t afford the anti-malarials that I’m sure helped a bit, didn’t have access to a decent road to get me to medical care or have an expedient means to use on the road, have access to a medical professional that was competent, actually get a prescription for the drugs that will help and they actually be there at the chemical shop and have someone explain to me how to use them in my native tongue and finally have the money to pay for the drugs. This is a reality that many people here don’t have and a privilege that I have for no real reason. In some cases I’m sure this is the privilege to live a few days more.

Malaria kills over 1 Million Africans a year.

1 Million!

Just think about that number for a second.

That is more than 2 people every minute.

Imagine if there was a preventable and curable disease in the West that killed that many people a year! All the hype about getting flu shots or even SARS and yet these have nowhere near the impact that malaria does every year in Africa.

Oh yeah the cost of the medication to help get ride of Malaria set me back about 6 Canadian dollars.

$ 6 CDN

Just to reassure everyone that I am feeling much better physically and imagine that I will be back up to 100% in a day or two. The only problem that I wrestle with now is the cost of a human life.

Over 1 million day every year. Over two ever minute for a cure of less that $6 Canadian dollars.


God Bless and Take Care,
Jason