17507: Lyall replies on asymptomatic malaria (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: j.daudi <wastemaster@lyalls.net>

That would be me. I learned that I had malaria (without chills and
fevers) because
I went to a lab to get a blood test. Why did I do that? Cause I had
diarrhoea (for two
months. Weakness too of course. Thor and I were both sick for a long time after
visiting Saut D'eau/SoDo and trying to figure out the cause. Turns
out that our illnesses had
different causes. I had a bad worm infestation and a heavy malaria load.

Worms from eating street food and malaria from living in port au
prince. I have caught malaria
three times now in two years. Once I was hospitalized in New Orleans
after a malaria attack.
Just had electrolyte imbalance, IV stopped the convulsions
immediately. It was exciting tho!

The doctor at the clinic said that she took a regular course of
anti-malaria treatment every year regardless. She also asked me about
reporting the infection to the anti malaria office. Huh?
There is a department of anti malaria? Well, yes. It hasn't done
anything since the departure
of Jean Claude however. Still  exists, someone is being paid, but
nothing is done.
Dokte Phillipe says that he has seen posters in the countryside
offering free chloroquine from
the anti-malaria program. That was in the bad old days of the dictatorship.

So, how does malaria become non symptomatic? I have no idea really,
but I do know that
people gradually develop immunity to the local strains. Different
racial groups have different
chances of  developing immunity. Ethiopians have a good chance,
Scottish Vikings a bad chance.
I have a bad chance, altho I wear an Ethiopian Orthodox cross.

So, people are bitten and infected by the parasite frequently without
becoming sick.
If the  parasite dies out some small bit of immunity is incurred.
Maybe the parasite
is fought but not completely successfully, and a low level of
parasite remains living
in the blood.

I've heard different doctors give contradictory opinions on this, but
the Tulane Tropical
Medicine center (where I was treated for one day at vast cost to my
insurance coverage)
probably knows better than most. One of my doctors was even Ethiopian!
The other was Lithuanian. Pretty close to a Viking.

Cerebral Malaria is a description of  someone suddenly dropping into
a coma without
undergoing the chills n fever (that you give to me) [its a song..]
One case is described in Paul Farmers book, Aids and Accusation.

The parasite builds up to such a level that it chokes off the blood
supply to the brain.
Obviously not good.

Really, malaria could be basically eradicated if the Haitian and
Dominican health
authorities coordinated an attack. Everyone in the Island taking a
full course of
chloroquine in the same week twice a year would kill it out within a
year or two.
There is an anti malaria program in the D.R today. They give out free
Chloroquine.
In haiti someone gets paid to staff an office somewhere I guess, but thousands
of people die of malaria and no one gets free chloroquine. Its not expensive,
but still beyond the reach of the starving.

There is no reservoir of malaria beyond the human host. Yellow fever
was eradicated
in Hayti/Quiskeya/Hispanyola because there are no monkeys here. In
Brazil monkeys
are a wild reservoir for yellow fever so it cannot be eradicated.
This info courtesy of
Dokte Phillipe of the people to people medical outreach program.

>A week or so ago someone sent a post dealing with asymptomatic malaria.  I
>am a
>bit baffled, because if it is asymptomatic, how do you know that you have
>it?
>Are there any warning signs at all, or did the person in question just
>happen
>to seek medical treatment for something unrelated and discovered the
>malaria in
>the process?  Is it truly asymptomatic or are there symptoms other than
>the
>usual chills and fever?
>
>
>--- Martha O'Brien


-- 
J.David Lyall, or
     Jedidiah Daudi
http://www.lyalls.net/