Malaria
on Really Out There Experience (Indonesia), 17/Jan/2010 10:50, 34 days ago
12 January 2010I had been suffering with a headache for a couple of days but so had John so had not really thought anything of it. However as the day progressed I began to feel really lousy and my temperature went up so I wandered along to UGD (the A&E department) to ask for a blood test. They knew exactly where to find the lab technician as her friends work on maternity so rang her there and arranged for her to meet me at the lab. There were no patients on maternity so the two midwives came along as well. I had my blood smear taken then we all wandered into the lab and sat around on the benches talking whilst the slide was processed. As I had unfortunately suspected it came back positive for malariafalciparum. VSO provides us with a self treatment pack so I went straight back to the house and after reading the instructions started my 60 hours of treatment. I do feel slightly hard done by as I have been taking my malaria prophylaxis every day, I use lotion containing 50% DEET every evening, wear long trousers and sleep under a net yet still get malaria. At least it was fairly mild.