Malaria Mosquitoes

Since my last anticipatory blog posting, I came down with Malaria.  Now that makes me the expert on the subject.  It started with a general "I don't feel right" feeling on the morning I came back to my village.  By the time I stepped out of the cruiser which picked me up, I knew I was feverish.  The 15 min walk back to my hut was the longest ever and I went straight to bed without cooking or unpacking.  That evening a fellow-volunteer arrived for a planned visit and she found me too sick to get out of bed.  Being very understanding, she cooked supper and went back to her village the next day.  That was a god send to have someone there.  I called our medical phone number in Lusaka, who determined that I had missed taking my prophylactic medication on time and had a full blown case.  I started taking the antimalarial Coartem from our first aid kit.  Turns out that the meds had expired last Oct but still brought down the fever in 24 hours.  The diarrhea continued for about 4 days and kept me close to home.  By Thursday I was back at work but had a new understanding for the patients who walk in to the clinic to be treated for Malaria.   I could barely get out of bed let alone sit in a waiting line on the clinic porch. The treatment really works, though and I now have my phone alarm set so I don't forget to take my preventive medication.  The virus causes the red blood cells to break down leaving you quite anemic  It also inflames the intenstinal lining which causes diarrhea and intestinal blood loss (not to mention the hemorrhoids).  The long term treatment is to build up ones red blood cells by eating high quality iron sources of food, like red meat.  Since I am in Kasama for a week I will be able to tank up.  I did manage to buy impala and eat it for two days  Without refrigeration, it was a bit risky and I shared it with my neighbors and the cats. The test of my renewed stamina came the following week when I biked 40 km round trip for a planning meeting in my furthest village outpost.  I was exhausted but triumphant when I got home.  The neatest thing was that my counterparts came to check on me the next day to see if I made it.  I am well cared for here and feel like I earned the red badge of courage.  PS The malaria totally made me miss the InternationalWoman's Day celebration which I talked about in my last post.  I never left the bed that day.