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For me, anti-malaria drugs have become something to dread. I dread malaria, all right, but I have discovered that some anti-malaria drugs can kill faster than the sickness itself. Talk about head or tail, you lose. I will never forget the anti-malaria drug that almost killed me about two years ago. I had gone to the hospital because I was not feeling fine. Usually, the only sickness that takes me to the hospital is malaria. For some unexplainable reasons, my body had started reacting negatively to most of the conventional anti-malaria drugs since 1992. On my file, in every hospital I use, is usually a list of all the anti-malaria drugs I react to: Chloroquine, Fansidar and all the drugs in that class. The good thing is that doctors have been able to detect the particular ingredient I react to, so the problem is half-solved. Or so I thought.
As I sat before this particular doctor, who by the way I was meeting for the first time, I was certain that he would never give me the drugs I personally explained to him I would react to. All said, he prescribed a new anti-malaria drug and sent the prescription to the pharmacy. A nurse however came over to his office to explain that the particular drug he had prescribed was not available. That was when the real problem started. The nurse suggested what was available, and the doctor changed the prescription. Because we had discussed at length, I assumed what he was replacing the first one with was not in the category of the drugs I react to. That assumption almost cost me my life! It did not take me more than thirty minutes to realise I had taken the forbidden drug. Apart from itching, I started feeling some peppery sensation all over me. It was worse in my private region, and that was where I usually had the most trouble every time it happened. Of course, it was too late to stop it; it had to take its full course.
In no time, blisters started appearing in my sensitive areas. By the following morning, the skin of my manhood had started peeling off; in its place were terrible sores. I was immediately placed on antibiotics to avoid infection. If I was scared, my wife was more scared. And to think that we had been married for just two years. I definitely did not want to think of the possibility of losing my…. God forbid! The pains were enough to keep me thinking of only survival. And I had to endure all that pain for about three weeks. The interesting thing was that all the people at the top in the hospital heard about my case and got involved. A member of the board of trustees was personally prescribing all the drugs he knew could help alleviate the pains. I really did not realise the full implication of what had happened to me until it was all over and my cousin came on a visit.
According to her, a course mate of hers had walked into the hospital himself because he was not feeling fine. As in my case, he had explained to them that he did not want to take certain anti-malaria drugs because his body could not handle them. But the drugs were administered to him all the same without his permission. Within a few minutes, his entire system shut down. He was dead before help could come. “That type of extreme reaction to anti-malaria drugs has been recorded in some cases,” the member of the board of trustees who got involved in my case was to confirm later. In other words, I was really lucky to have survived the ordeal. The World Health Organisation (WHO) estimates 300 to 500 million cases of malaria occur worldwide each year and 1.5 to 3 million – mostly children – die. And most of these cases occur in Asia, Africa and
Latin America
. According to the African Medical and Research Foundation, malaria kills 3,000 children each day and more than one million each year, the majority in sub-Saharan
Africa
.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), on the other hand, reports that approximately 1,200 cases are recorded in the
United States
each year, with 2–5 deaths. The few cases recorded, CDC insists, are mostly acquired during international travel as the disease was eradicated in the
United States
in the 1940s. I am sure the situation is not significantly different in much of the developing world. My question is: if it can be eradicated in some parts of the world, why not in
Nigeria
, and the rest of the developing world? After a long break, I had cause recently to go back to the hospital after battling another bout of malaria without respite. This time around, the doctor on duty was quite understanding, as he himself reacts to most anti-malaria drugs. He was honest enough to explain to me the implication of continually using only the new anti-malaria drugs. Firstly, they are sometimes incapable of clearing all the malaria parasites. Secondly, if you do not combine them with the conventional anti-malaria drugs and the malaria parasites become resistant to them, then you in for some serious trouble.
“So what is the solution?” I asked him. “Stay completely away from mosquitoes,” he said. Good advice! He could have as well asked the mosquitoes to stay away from me. Or how does one stay completely away from mosquitoes in a mosquito-infested environment? So I have been wondering: is it not possible to develop a malaria vaccine? Just wondering! Meanwhile, I just finished taking what my doctor said was a new combination drug now being recommended by the Federal Ministry of Health. Did my body tolerate it? To some extent! But it left me sleepless for about a week and made me hallucinate for over two weeks.
As I write this, I am not very sure I have recovered fully from the effects of the drug. Will someone give me some malaria vaccine please?
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Posted by Robot| 04.07.2007 07:10