What type of illness is malaria? What are the symptoms? We hear catastrophic tales about this illness and usually about the worst, possibly fatal, examples.
However, soon after arriving in Kenya I encountered a real life example and wrote about it in February. This week another case in the same family reinforced my idea that malaria in countries where it is considered endemic is very similar to COVID19 in much of the world 2020-2022. A label for generic illness if there is a positive result in a potentially dubious test.
In western countries during COVID ‘pandemic’ if anyone had illness symptoms, cough, fever, stomach upset etc., they were encouraged to get tested either with PCR (polymerase chain reaction) or a Lateral Flow Test. If the test were positive they were considered a case and were usually required to quarantine to prevent spread. If symptoms were more serious they might be treated with an anti-viral drug such as remdesivir or a generic medication sold for another condition. Now most people no longer believe and recognise the pointlessness of all that.
In the recent ‘malaria’ case a young girl had a fever and upset stomach the day after her birthday party in which she ate much children’s party food. I was travelling on business in the far east so was not there. But I did suggest that she be given fluids and monitored at home while her body purged the junk she had eaten.
However, her mother first gave her paracetamol (acetaminophen. So toxic sale is often restricted to make suicide more difficult) to treat the fever and her condition worsened. She was worried and brought her to the same private hospital featured in my February tale. I expect the girl was tested with the same sensitive RDT (rapid diagnostic test) for malaria plasmodia and tested positive. Then she was given the first of three 12-hourly artesunate injections as well as dispersible Artefan tablets (Artemether-Lumefantrine). She went home but her condition worsened and she ended up back in hospital for two nights.
I suspect that she was mildly poisoned by the many artificial ingredients of the party food. Fever is one of the body’s means of purging. But then she was given more mild poisons, paracetamol, and then artesunate and artemether-lumefantrine which lengthened her period of illness.
But it will be recorded as another case of malaria. The test and drug treatment would not occur in a country in which malaria is not present. But if the same circumstances had occurred in 2020 and COVID test were positive, it would have been a COVID case. The belief in malaria is strong in endemic countries as was the belief in COVID worldwide in 2020. Cases will continue as long as people believe and the hospitals continue to make money providing treatments such as this.