The only thing worse then being sick, is being sick away from home

I'm just coming out of the fog of 5 days of fevers, headaches, body aches, a little bit of vomiting and little sleep. Even though I've been taking malaria prophylaxis and I sleep under a net, I was pretty convinced it was malaria: there is a growing resistance to prophylaxis. So I visited a clinic and did a rapid diagnostic test, which was negative = no parasites detected in my blood (research shows these tests are very accurate). Nevertheless the doctor thought it was malaria and prescribed me ACTs. Malaria is often diagnosed here without a test, I had to actually request to have one. As I learned from the doctor I work with, when you have a fever here, where malaria is endemic all year round, malaria is treated presumptively. If you are still sick after treatment, then they'll investigate other possible diseases.

Ironically, I wrote a paper last year on this very situation: the overdiagnosis of malaria in Africa and disregard for test results, which leads to overuse of ACTs which will ultimately lead to drug resistance. No effective treatments for malaria will be a huge problem. Despite knowing this, I took the drugs. When you are feeling awful you'll do anything to make it end. Plus, I've been haunted by the story of an Englishwoman from CI, a teacher at an International school, who had cerebral malaria and didn't know it until she was in England on vacation and she died! Terrifying to think you could not know you had cerebral malaria. So yeah, reason gave way to fear. And now I'll never know what it was. But I do know if malaria is anything like what I had, then I fully understand how debilitating it is, how unproductive it makes you.

Happy to be feeling better!