Wednesday, September 14, 2011

Mefloquine Mondays

According to the Programme National de Lutte contre le Paludisme, the arm of the Togolese government that manages national malaria programs, malaria is the number one cause of death in Togo.

What is malaria? Malaria is a vector-borne parasitic disease with global distribution. Malaria parasites are vector-transmitted by the female Anopheles mosquitoes. The parasites multiply within liver cells and also within red blood cells. Malaria symptoms often include fever, chills, nausea, headache, flu-like illness, diarrhea, vomiting, anorexia, cirrhosis, spleen enlargement, anemia (including light headedness, shortness of breath, and tachycardia) and in severe cases, coma and death.

Whoa.

Before we, as Trainees, hit our 24th hour in Togo, PC Med Unit instructed us to take two pills at the same time: Doxycycline (Doxy) and Mefloquine (Mef). Mef is the best prophylactic drug currently available, but takes a full week to work its way through the human body. Doxy is a commonly prescribed prophylactic and begins working immediately. This, in short, is the reason medical officers instructed us to consume both pills at the same time the first day, and for the following six days we only took Doxy. Doxy must be taken daily whereas Mef is only once per week. After reading the list of symptoms in my Community Health and AIDS Prevention Toolkit, ingesting one pill a week to avoid malaria seemed like a no-brainer.

The kicker, of course, is side effects associated with Mef. Some people experience vivid, physically stimulating dreams, and some experience frightening nightmares. I regret neither the former or nor the latter are side effects I have acquired while taking Mef. Sure, it seems peculiar to want spine-chilling dreams. Well, in truth, I don’t want those dreams. I want the vivid sex dreams I keep hearing about from other Volunteers. I believe it to simply be a little cadeau for two years of service. Right? Asking too much? Unfortunately, instead of a bit of sensual pleasure, I get the other side effects--lame ones such as hair loss, irritability, anxiety and the jitters.

It really isn’t too unpleasant. The hair loss bit kind of blows, but people often experience hair loss with something as simple as a change of diet or climate. Thankfully, I only experience the jitters on Mef Mondays. It certainly isn’t painful, however, I do feel as though I’ve consumed five cans of Red Bull in one hour. (Note: This is a mild exaggeration and only lasts a day.)

As you might expect, the thought of popping one prophylactic drug a week doesn’t appeal to me. At the same time, malaria is right up there with blister beetle burns as things I don’t want while in Togo.

So…Mef Mondays it is my friends! If any readers have any Mef or Doxy stories they are willing to share, feel free to comment.

1 comment:

  1. I was disappointed myself when I had to take Vicodin for a few weeks, as I felt like it really didn't do anything other than cause dizziness--which, anyone who knows me probably realizes that I don't need to take anything to induce that! But, in your position, the jitters is a small price to pay for "peace of mind," as the cliché goes.

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