Malaria treated with injections?

birds

Hi All,

A casual labourer who works near our house went to check for malaria as he had flu for the past ten days or so. He told me that indeed the hospital said he has malaria and gave him some injections.

I have never heard of malaria being treated with injections. Is this something new or so? Any ideas.

Also, how long does it take to get the results of a malaria test?
Just wondering.

This guy is deaf and does not talk very well so it is difficult to understand what happened.

Thanks.

Anders

A malaria test is instant, it's just a blood smear and a microscope.

Aishah

My first treatment of malaria was done by having a needle with hole inserted into lower arm (is a medical term for this but don't know it!) and then a bottle of the chemical used for treatment was dripped in. This took about 20 mins. 6 of these bottles were used over a 3 day period. It did the job and actually I had no side effects unlike the severe treatment of lariam back in Oz. The 1st lot was in India. So maybe when he says injections he is referring to that method I first described.

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"Life can only be understood backwards, but it must be lived forwards."

Brigit

Aishah, your talking about an intervinus(sp?) drip. sounds heavy to me but some times call for it I guess

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birds

Thanks for the replies.

I did not found out what injections they gave him but did learn he went to a government hospital in Mapusa.

I also had a look at the tablets they gave him:

- Chloroquine
- Ofloxacin (apparently for conjunctivitis! )
- Diclofenac Sodium (apparently for rheuma, arthritis and other musculo skeletal disorders)

I am not sure why they gave him the latter two.

The poor guy is quite scared, he even said he wants to go back to his village because he thinks he may die here. I told him it was not wise to travel in his condition (he lives ten days travel from here) and that he better can take rest and eat (also found out he had not eaten for the past few days). In principle he should feel better after a couple of days when the Chloroquine takes effect.

wonderwomanusa

Chloroquine
- Ofloxacin (apparently for conjunctivitis! )
- Diclofenac Sodium (apparently for rheuma, arthritis and other musculo skeletal disorders)

I am not sure why they gave him the latter two.

I suspect that they found he has other problems besides malaria and gave him stuff to treat the others as well; it could be 10 years before he goes to a doctor again. And conjuntivitis can be spread to other people. Just what you need -- a "pink eye" epidemic!

Did you give him a meal?

the three b's

Apparently diclofenac is an anti-inflammatory (possibly for the intravenous wound), and your mans description of his treatment sounds right for a severe malaria infection. Please reassure him treatment is usually successful, according to all the sources I have seen.

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Hartson

According to the Center for Disease Control (the CDC), chloroquine is NOT a recommended antimalarial medication for India. It basically says that it is not effective like the others (Lariam, Malarone, doxycycline, etc.). That is interesting that he would be given that.

Aishah

Maybe the injections were of something stronger? I had some dioclefenac sodium tabs. at same time - they are for the muscle aches you get with malaria. Didn't take them for long...

edwardseco

In some areas resistance to chloroquine has decreased due to less use of it so..

JamesW

When I had malaria, I was prescribed Artemisinin. It worked a treat.

Nick-H

Choloroquine is fine for anti-malarial, depending on the risk and the strain. The UK recommendation (for most of India) used to be chloroquine and proguinal (errr... is that ow you spell it?). Now it is treat-it-if-you-catch-it.

Chloroquine is a treatment for the disease.

The best thing you can advise your man, Birds, is to do exactly what the docs tell hime to, for as long as they tell him to do it. If he takes insufficient medication it may appear to be cured, but may reoccur in the future.

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Just one member of the IndiaMike Mod Team