QUESTION
I was affected by malaria 5 months back. I am feeling tiered and weakness and heart trembling symptoms.
Any suggestions to overcome weakness?
ANSWER
Your fatigue is probably not caused by the treatment—one of the potential residual effects of malaria infection is iron deficiency, which can lead to anaemia, and this can cause tiredness. Eating iron-rich foods or asking your doctor about iron supplements might help if indeed you find your iron levels are too low. Recovery from any illness can sometimes take a long time, and getting plenty of rest, eating well and keeping well hydrated will all help you to regain your strength.
If you have recently taken malaria medication, perhaps you would be willing to spend a few minutes to take our Malaria Medication Side Effects Survey? We are very interested in hearing about the experiences of people who have taken different types of malaria medication, and particularly any side effects they have experienced. The survey should only take a few minutes and will be anonymous; we will publish the results on the website for you to see. Many thanks for your assistance!
I was diagnosed resistance malaria in the month of Nov.2011. Ever since I suffer from fatigue, anxiety, Fluctuating hypertension, very weak and muscle cramps.. I was very active women till then..Now I am just not interested normal daily life. So tired confused always. Mu doc says malaria is the winner.
No malaria is resistant to all forms of treatment – currently, the most effective forms of treatment are artemisinin-based combination therapies (such as Coartem). In some parts of south-east Asia, resistance has been reported to these medications, but so far levels of resistance are still low. As such, your doctor should certainly be able to provide you with effective treatment, of some kind or another. If you have Plasmodium vivax or Plasmodium ovale, which can cause relapses, you can also look into taking primaquine, which in many cases can prevent future relapses (though you will need to be tested for G6DP deficiency prior to taking primaquine). Therefore you do have options, and you should make sure your doctor knows that there are further treatments he should pursue for you.
I had malaria last week, it was around 2 clock in the morning when i noticed that the skin on, my head i couldnot feel it,i was dizzy and very anxious,no fever or back hacke or any symptoms of malaria, so i jumped in my car and went to the emergency, thy did all the precheck: blood pressure,temperature and everything was normal,i kept on telling the doctor that its not normal because i have spent almost 20 years in Ivory coast, wherei still live, so thy did blood test and find out that i had malaria level 2, i had 2 injection of Paluther and gave me 2 tablets of Atarx to make me sleep as i was very anxious,since than my i feel very weak,very anxiuos and tired.
i went to several doctors , they keep telling me its a post malaria fatigue.
please advise
Fatigue is common when recovering from a malarial attack. This is because the malaria parasites destroy red blood cells, which normally carry oxygen around the body. With less oxygen transport, the body tires more quickly. You may experience these effects several weeks or even months after recovering from malaria, depending on the severity of your initial infection. I am more concerned with the type of treatment they gave you – injections are usually reserved for people who are unable to take tablets, or have very severe malaria. Normally, tablets are preferred for uncomplicated cases. Moreover, and most importantly, I believe Paluther contains only artemether, and artemisinin-derivative, without an additional anti-malarial compound. The World Health Organization currently recommends that only compound treatments (i.e. those containing an artemisinin-derivative plus another anti-malarial compound) are given as first-line treatment, since single drug treatments are both potentially less effective and can also contribute to the malaria parasite gaining resistance against the drug, and thus rendering that treatment less effective. If you are unlucky and have malaria again, make sure the doctor gives you an artemisinin-based combination therapy (ACT) treatment – common brand names include Coartem, Lonart and Duo-Cotecxin.