There are many great things about living in Uganda: the beautiful landscape, the gorgeous weather, and the extremely nice people, but there is one thing that is not so nice about this and other East African nations, and that is that they are infested with mosquitoes. During the day they aren’t bad at all, but around six o’clock at night they come out in swarms. The bad thing about these mosquitoes is not the itchy bite marks they leave or the annoyance at an afternoon picnic, but rather the lethal infectious disease that some of them carry. They bite you and then 10-14 days later you start to feel like seven shades of death.
So I guess 10-14 days before two Fridays ago, one of the little infectious critters bit me in the night, and that little fella brought havoc to my body. Since the mosquitoes are the worst at night they advise you to sleep under a mosquito net, and some people even take preventative medications every day for precautionary purposes. Well I tried the mosquito net the first month or two, but the thing is extremely uncomfortable, especially for me, a six foot four inch person sleeping in a six foot long bed. So I said to myself, “Malaria can’t be that bad.” Well I couldn’t have been more wrong. It was “that bad,” and even worse than I could have ever imagined. The first four days were the worst days of my life. I had 103 fever along with aches, pains, and nausea. During these days I couldn’t even get out of bed, or sit up and get on my computer. I would have chills followed by extreme sweating. I got very little sleep, and had to force myself to drinks lots of water. After 4 days the fever went away but a parasite remains in your spleen for 7 days (this is what the nurse told me anyway). So the next three days were filled with stomach pains, vomiting, and disambiguation. After 7 exhausting days I started to feel better. My body was completely drained, and I was very weak, but I began to recover. Now all I have left to show of malaria is a couple of cold soars and 10 pounds less on the scales. Needless to say, I will never sleep another night in Africa without a mosquito net.
So after 7 days I was over malaria, and this was because I had the very best medication and knowledge of how to treat the sickness. Malaria is a huge problem in Uganda. People get it, and can’t afford a medication that is strong enough to cure it. The malaria can move to you brain, i.e. cerebral malaria, and at that point it becomes lethal. Yeah malaria was bad and all, but while I was sick I couldn’t help but to think of all the kids who get this virus and can’t afford to treat it. I had all the water and juice that I needed and a fan at my side. I’ve heard horror stories and seen the results of kids getting malaria and then getting abandoned by their parents with nothing and the infection lingers on for months. I had it for seven days and I was almost wanting to die, I can’t imagine having this thing linger on for weeks and even months with nothing to treat it. It just reminds me of how fortunate I am. The government is making strives to distribute malaria medications but they have a long way to go. We are fortunate at GSF to have a clinic stocked with malaria testing equipment and the best malaria medication available. Our clinic and our meds are free to anyone who walks up from a surrounding village.
