Before moving to Lusaka almost three years ago, me and my family went through some thorough check up with a doctor. All the possible vaccinations were given. And malaria. Yes, prophylactic to prevent the deadly sickness. Especially for the kids, said the doctor. We actually started asking him about the necessity of the medication. Result: we got threatened by him with an ultimatum. If we don’t give prophylactic to our kids, they will be taken into custody. Wow, that was something. Anyway, we bought one pharmacy bagfull of Lariam, the strongest and worst-side-effect tablets. Those stood on the recipe.
We stopped taking Lariam immediately on the same evening after coming home from that doctors appointment. Nasty headaches disappeared and horror dreams were history. After only three weeks of munching Lariam, we were left with the same bagfull, which nobody will probably ever buy. Or take for free. Since then we have opened that bag only for some pills in order to prevent malaria when going to the Falls or into the bush. But, some doctors and other people say, that having that preventative poison in the body might actually hide the symptoms so that the blood test would not show malaria clearly. Good point! So, it’s good to think beforehand and at the same time keep in mind that malaria is a very severe disease which never goes away without strong and powerful treatment. This case just shows how different we look at the case of malaria in the North and here in the South where it’s almost a fluelike episode. For many, a yearly nuisance.
Ansku Tiilikainen
As we got down here, we started asking around about malaria. Some researchers said that it’s almost non existing in Lusaka. Or how they put it, one must really have a bad luck to get it into the system here in the capital city. We also saw a doctor here, an experienced Indian chap at CfB hospital. ”Are you crazy, you should not take any more of that Lariam or rather no other prophylactic either.” He adviced us just to take care in the evenings that we are protected with natural ways, long sleeves and sprays. And mosquito nets above the beds. So did we, as soon as we got organised in our rented home with our own furniture. Before that especially our youngest one looked mostly like a leopard with tens of bites.. No malaria, fortunately.
We stopped taking Lariam immediately on the same evening after coming home from that doctors appointment. Nasty headaches disappeared and horror dreams were history. After only three weeks of munching Lariam, we were left with the same bagfull, which nobody will probably ever buy. Or take for free. Since then we have opened that bag only for some pills in order to prevent malaria when going to the Falls or into the bush. But, some doctors and other people say, that having that preventative poison in the body might actually hide the symptoms so that the blood test would not show malaria clearly. Good point! So, it’s good to think beforehand and at the same time keep in mind that malaria is a very severe disease which never goes away without strong and powerful treatment. This case just shows how different we look at the case of malaria in the North and here in the South where it’s almost a fluelike episode. For many, a yearly nuisance.
Ansku Tiilikainen
