I remarked in my diary that I had not written anything for a few days. The previous Sunday I was down and out with severe headache, sore eye muscles, stiff bones, sore neck and lower legs. My head felt like the top would blow off at any time! Classic symptoms of malaria!By Monday my headache had subsided a little, but I felt awful! Mags drove me to the doctor who looked like the film-star Omah Sherriff. and he sent me to his hospital where they sampled my blood and urine.
I was positive for malaria and typhoid as well, but the typhoid might have been a gut infection I picked up in Zanzibar. I was given Mefloquine and Cipofloxacin antibiotic that was to last a week.
We were supposed to take Paludrine daily and Chloroquine once a week to prevent malaria but I did not like taking those chemicals and actually biting insects do not like me much. Mags is just the opposite.
Sure I get bitte
n but not frequently, though the speckled grey mosquito that is around more during the day did bite me but I did not contract the dengue fever it carries. These bugger used to hang around the nursery!We had mossie nets to sleep under and we knew the mosquitoes you hear buzzing are the male ones and the silent female ones are the carriers of malaria.
Still I did not take them lightly as it may seem but rather than preventative drugs, I copied the locals by treating the disease once I contracted it. For me personally this is good but I would not recommend any treatment to anybody else.As for the typhoid thing; we had inoculations before leaving for Africa, therefore we had the antibodies, so naturally these would always show up in the test.
The other thing people do not understand about mosquitoes and malaria. When a mosquito lands on you to suck your blood, once his tube (proboscis) is in you, first he clears it by blowing out the
Oh yes I carried on working, village visits, and felt crook and then lost another couple of days. Then the vomiting! My nursery workers told me that it was necessary to vomit up the bile from your stomach before the cure is complete.
Well the cure came but I did catch malaria again.
One day Mags woke with pain across her chest and blisters that looked like she had been burnt. Worried we took her off to the doctor and he smiled, showing her a scar running from his forehead to his chin. Nairobi fly, he said, when it walks on you it leaves a trail that cause
s burning and pain. The scar fades away in a few days.Again I am lucky because they have walked over me but never left that trail. But they can do damage!
We were given a goat by one of the villages out of appreciation of what we had accomplished there but the goat carried Funza, jiggers, chiggers or sand fleas!
These insects live in dry, dusty ground and the first one I noticed was on my big toe. It became itchy, red and swollen. There were two black dots - I now know one is a breathing hole and the other is an anus! I squeezed the white stuff out! We had visitor and all found Funza! Over a short period of time, I extracted 40 from mainly my feet. The locals laughed because they thought us wazungu were too clean to catch them! But it is nothing to do with hygiene!
I used to wat
er the nursery in the evening in my bare feet. The Funza would jump onto my legs or feet and latch on. A small brown speck. I could not wash them off with the hose, so I sat on the bath (where there was best light) and squeeze them with a crunch! The only way to kill them.
They bury themselves into your flesh and form a grub with its two black dots. Your body reacts.
You suffocate the grub with a drop of kerosene and dig the grub out with a needle. If you squeeze just the body might come out leaving the skin behind. Mags did this and she was infected. I gave her a foot bath of potassium permanganate which cured her but made her feet brown for a week or two.
These insects are very dangerous and cause malformation in the feet of kids as well as adults. There are projects in Nairobi that I know of where they seek finance to help suffering kids. There is a website. It is a big problem and I would be pleased if anyone could help them - just Google Funza or Sand Flea.
While it is not an insect, shilingi or ringworm is is a problem and is very contagious. Of course it is a fungal disease and can appear anywhere on your body but very often kids in Tanzania catch it on their head. Commonly it is controlled by cutting the hair and rubbing in shoe polish. Any anti-fungal ointment works though.
I worked in close proximity to kids and never caught ringworm, though it is not very usual in adults. But it is no doubt embarrassing for kids and the culture where being close together in the norm, the disease is easily spread.
I have already written about Siafu or Safari Ants, but I would like to share some additional things.
When I say that I respect them, the meaning could be that I fear them, but I don't - I think they are well organized and brilliant insects and I have a high regard for them.
I was speaking at a seminar at Kolila and felt the ant making its way up my leg, of course I did not flinch, but it managed to get into the tenderer part of my anatomy and there, it decided to take a bite! The tears came to my eyes and I hurried to the privacy of the toilet, which was some eighty metres away! There I squeezed the life out of the insect and gained immediate relief. My audience was aware what had happened and on my return showed they wore polite smiles.
When the column of siafu came into our house, the local reaction was to sweep them away and put kerosene in their path. That interrupted them and because I knew what their diet was [meat] I let them pass through because they were on a journey as the name safari ant alludes to.
I used to wat
er the nursery in the evening in my bare feet. The Funza would jump onto my legs or feet and latch on. A small brown speck. I could not wash them off with the hose, so I sat on the bath (where there was best light) and squeeze them with a crunch! The only way to kill them.They bury themselves into your flesh and form a grub with its two black dots. Your body reacts.
You suffocate the grub with a drop of kerosene and dig the grub out with a needle. If you squeeze just the body might come out leaving the skin behind. Mags did this and she was infected. I gave her a foot bath of potassium permanganate which cured her but made her feet brown for a week or two.
These insects are very dangerous and cause malformation in the feet of kids as well as adults. There are projects in Nairobi that I know of where they seek finance to help suffering kids. There is a website. It is a big problem and I would be pleased if anyone could help them - just Google Funza or Sand Flea.
While it is not an insect, shilingi or ringworm is is a problem and is very contagious. Of course it is a fungal disease and can appear anywhere on your body but very often kids in Tanzania catch it on their head. Commonly it is controlled by cutting the hair and rubbing in shoe polish. Any anti-fungal ointment works though.
I worked in close proximity to kids and never caught ringworm, though it is not very usual in adults. But it is no doubt embarrassing for kids and the culture where being close together in the norm, the disease is easily spread.
I have already written about Siafu or Safari Ants, but I would like to share some additional things.When I say that I respect them, the meaning could be that I fear them, but I don't - I think they are well organized and brilliant insects and I have a high regard for them.
I was speaking at a seminar at Kolila and felt the ant making its way up my leg, of course I did not flinch, but it managed to get into the tenderer part of my anatomy and there, it decided to take a bite! The tears came to my eyes and I hurried to the privacy of the toilet, which was some eighty metres away! There I squeezed the life out of the insect and gained immediate relief. My audience was aware what had happened and on my return showed they wore polite smiles.
When the column of siafu came into our house, the local reaction was to sweep them away and put kerosene in their path. That interrupted them and because I knew what their diet was [meat] I let them pass through because they were on a journey as the name safari ant alludes to.
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