Rick talked to Rachel this AM early, then we both were able to talk to her around noon our time. She says she has malaria. The PC doctor, consulted by phone, said it doesn’t sound like dengue fever, thank goodness. Rachel was in Maroantsetra (her “banking townâ€?) with two friends when the illness began yesterday. She had intense chills, 104 degree fever, body aches and headache—the usual symptoms of malaria–plus hallucinations from the high fever. She began emergency self-treatment and feels better now, she said. She took a blood sample that was brought to Tana today by someone so that they can check for parasites (useful in determining for sure that it is malaria and what type).

She says that she had not missed a dose of her malarial suppressant (Larium at this point) but that she had gotten a number of mosquito bites recently. Rachel and the two other young people were in town for banking and such and had been intending to go out to dinner today to celebrate a birthday. She is really lucky that the illness hit when she was not out in her village and was with friends who could take care of her and help her contact PC for advice.

She is apparently now planning to leave on June 12th for a two and a half week trip to the north to study trees.

Teresa adds (from memory and without looking things up, so google to get certain facts): malaria was prevalent in the US into the late 1800s, or maybe even the early part of the 20th century, not only in the south but also in northern states in low-lying, marshy areas. It was often called “intermittent fever�, a description of the way the symptoms recede after each acute attack, then return repeatedly 24 or 48 hours later. People whose ancestors evolved in malarial areas (maybe only in Africa) are often partially protected from the ravages of malaria by what we call “sickle cell anemia�.

Both Rick and Teresa had malaria in the 70s in Africa/Madagascar. It was considered more of a nuisance than a serious disease back then, but Rick actually had the more serious falciparial malaria in Rwanda in 1978.