Story from Cathleen McKague from Waterloo writes:;
At first their symptoms were slight, varying from constant fatigue to a sense of general malaise—we thought perhaps that they were suffering the effects of jet-lag. However, as the weeks progressed their symptoms worsened to include fever, chills, nausea, night sweats, and vomiting.
Most unfortunate was my roommate, a young woman from France. Not only did she endure the frustration of communication difficulties —she was not confident speaking English, and had expected more French-speakers in our camp—but she also contracted the deadliest form of Malaria, the strain that leads to seizures, coma, and then death, if untreated…and was completely unaware of it. She was thrilled upon my arrival as "a Canadian"—one who would therefore be able to communicate with and for her in French, which I gladly did. We became fast friends.
I noticed, however, that she often complained of feeling ill, and being tired. One night I was startled awake by my friend: she was shaking in her sleep. Convulsing, in fact. I was frightened. The next morning I asked her if she had epilepsy, to which she replied she did not. We both then realized the cause of her seizure. I accompanied her immediately to the hospital, and acted as translator between my friend and the doctor. She was diagnosed as indeed having Malaria, was treated, and was sent home to France.
To this day none of us is 100% sure how my friend, and several others of our group, contracted Malaria. Perhaps they had forgotten to take a daily dose of their antimalarials before bed. Maybe they hadn’t closed the mosquito net fully, or had neglected to douse themselves in Deep Woods Off prior to an evening excursion. Perhaps their mosquito nets were the untreated kind. Whatever the reason, five of us —at least—developed severe Malaria. I was spared, fortunately, thanks to my religious morning consumption of Malarone, good luck, and my treated mosquito net.
I will never forget my time in Africa, nor the people with whom I worked —native Ghanaians and foreigners alike. I can’t imagine what it would be like to live in a Malaria-infested area 24/7 with little to no effective medication, or even a simple mosquito net. I feel that if there’s anything that I can do to prevent infection or to ease the suffering of the infected, I should do it. And so should you.
|
