Malaria and Quinine

I thought that it's about time that I write a bit about malaria. Before I came to Africa, I was really worried about getting malaria, and to be honest it kind of scared me. Thankfully, I am no longer afraid of malaria; nothing like facing your fears to get rid of them. So, here's a bit about malaria.

Originally, I was going to keep score-- me versus malaria and giardia. Now, I'm not so sure because I have a feeling that the statistics might be discouraging.

I ended up getting malaria eleven days after arriving in Chad, which is funny because it takes 7-10 days after being infected to show symptoms. So I must have gotten malaria the first or second night here. Since then, I've had it two more times, each about 2-3 weeks apart. What can I say? The African mosquitoes must love my sweet, American B+ blood. I'm just hoping that I don't continue to get malaria every 2-3 weeks for the rest of my stay.

The first time I got malaria, I remember thinking that it wasn't that bad; a headache, a fever, and a little nausea. But after my second round, I took that thought back. It really isn't pleasant at all. The second time, not only did I have a headache the whole time and a fever for a day, but I also ended up being extremely nauseated for 3 days straight, and I had really bad stomach pain. Oh, and I ended up having a bad cold at the same time (thanks Stefan...).

To be completely honest though, I think that what's worse than malaria itself is the medicine used to treat it. Quinine and Doxycycline. Doxy just makes you really nauseated (as if the malaria didn't do a good enough job), even if you take it with your meals. But Quinine has a long list of awful side effects.

First of all, it causes you to have ringing in your ears. Constantly. It doesn't go away until you're finished with the medicine. Beyond that, it muffles your hearing, so you're constantly asking people to repeat what they just said.

Another side effect is evident in your stride. Quinine tends to make you dizzy, so sometimes it's difficult to walk straight. And good luck if you try to stand up too quickly; you just might find yourself face down on the ground. Usually I tried to take one dose of Quinine just before I went to bed (you have to take it three times a day) so that I would sleep through some side effects. But one time, I took it at 9 pm, went to bed, and woke up at 11 pm to use the bathroom.
Unfortunately, I forgot that I was on Quinine, and when I got out of bed, the world began to spin, and I almost fell into the wall.

The final irritating side effect of Quinine is what it does to your blood sugar. Quinine very effectively lowers your blood sugar. I was not aware of this the first few days that I took it, so when I would take my afternoon dose, I usually hadn't eaten anything since breakfast. So by about 2 pm, I would get really shaky, weak, and tired. Luckily that side effect can be easily remedied by eating something. But I learned pretty quickly not to take my Quinine without eating.

So, all in all, malaria isn't that scary. It's certainly not pleasant, but it's not frightening anymore. However, I've noticed that it seems like the times that I most want to go home are the times when I have malaria... Go figure.


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"Therefore I am now going to allure her; I will lead her into the desert and speak tenderly to her."       ~Hosea 2:14