viet in nigeria

this blog chronicles my internship in jos, nigeria. i will be working at faith alive, one of the few sites in nigeria that provides antiretroviral drugs to HIV positives. this free clinic was founded in 1996 by dr. chris isichei and his wife, mercy.

i am a uc berkeley graduate student in the school of public health, studying infectious diseases with an international health speciality area.

Wednesday, July 26, 2006

on health

thursday, july 13th. i took the day off from work to join some co-workers from the lab to visit a village about 90 minutes out of jos. the day already proved to be complicated by the type and amount of preparation required for this trip. in hindsight, i should have taken that as an omen for things to come.

the plateau state produces and distributes bottled water all over the country, called swan water. it is primarily the drinking water that everyone drinks, save eva water and "pure water." (advice to anyone traveling to nigeria. "pure water" comes in little bags and costs about 5 naira which is pennies to americans. although they look refreshing and are inexpensive, they are rumored to be tap water which is not safe, especially in larger cities. bottled water, when sealed, is very safe to drink.) the village where swan water is bottled is called kerang and happens to be rachel's village, a co worker in the lab. she invited andrew, rod, and i to visit her village and take a tour of swan water's factory. they bottle their water at the foot of volcanic mountains, which provide beautiful scenery.

although i did not get much sleep the night before, i felt fine as i waited around for our taxi to arrive, late as usual. after picking up our lunches and sorting out the taxi business, we headed out to kerang. when we arrived at the factory, we were greeted and expected by the workers. we got a special tour of the factory. in the middle of this special tour, i started to feel extremely faint and my abdomen was feeling very sore. i had just eaten a snack in the car so i was pretty sure my weakness was not due to lack of food. i attributed my aching muscles to carrying too many buckets of water around and tried to make it through the tour. towards the end, i could not handle standing any longer. i did not feel nauseous; just extremely weak. instead of wanting to try to climb the volcano with the others, i wanted to lay down in the taxi, which was conveniently waiting for us. everyone, including myself, thought i was just tired and needed food or water or something. so they all went to climb the volcano as i layed in the taxi's back seat in complete agony. i began to feel very warm but i thought it was because it was about 100 degrees in the car, as the sun was beating down my neck. i had to cover it with a shawl i brought to keep from getting sun burned, so i felt even hotter. i could not move at this point. i could not eat. i could barely drink water. i just layed there, in the most pathetic way possible. finally, after what seemed hours, my travel companions arrived and we headed back to jos. since we were taking a taxi, we stopped several times to pick up other passengers on the way. everyone taking a glimpse at the oyibo in the back seat who could not move. everyone began to get worried about me. i took 2 advil that one of my co workers had and began to feel a bit more mobile when we arrived at the apartment. i was able to step out and make it up stairs.

i slept for a few hours and by the evening, i had extreme chills and a high fever. i went to bed but would only sleep for an hour or two at a time. i would wake up very hot or very cold. i was tossing and turning the entire night and by morning, i still had a fever. i could not move out of bed for a few hours. i finally gathered the strength to walk to the living room where i would collapse on the couch (also known as my "sick haven" where i spent most of my time). i could not move. it hurt to breathe. it hurt to talk. it hurt to think. my entire body was in extreme pain.

baba, our cook, got worried that i did not show up for breakfast and sent for one of my room mates to check up on me. then a slew of people came to visit, including dr. prince, dr. chuks, some of the lab techs i work with, and several other visitors from FA who were worried about me. i merely said two sentences to dr. prince and he immediately diagnosed malaria. dr. chuks came to take a blood sample and the lab confirmed it. plasmodium falciparum, trophozoites in my blood.

luckily, i got treated right away and in about two days i was feeling better. i was well enough to even go out to dinner. the next day, i got dysentery. it was horrible. i couldn't sleep the whole night without needing to go to the bathroom. the next 24 hours i was back to my "sick haven" and i could not keep anything down. i didn't eat the entire day. alicia, my room mate, also got sick with something similar. we are not sure what caused it, but we were both in complete agony. i was very dehydrated. i could not move, again. but this time it was because i was weak, not because of the body pains. dr. mercy had me take the cipro that i brought and that very same evening my dysentery was gone. i guess cipro really is a miracle drug.

i find it kind of ironic that i was taking my anti-malarial prophylaxis at the same time as my treatment for malaria.

anyhow, i felt better by the next day. and i was going back to work that week. at the end of the week, however, i got some allergic reaction and broke out in mystery hives all over my body. i had just finished my treatment for both dysentery and malaria. i took two benadryl and it immediately started to clear up. that was last week. this week i am fine. at least i hope so. i am not sure what caused the hives, since i never get allergies to anything.

on the bright side of things, i am well enough to tell the tale. i am now officially a nigerian, as malaria is just a way of life here. the doctors who treated me get it about once or twice a month. of course, they have a bit more immunity than i do, but i am slowly working on that one.


also, i would like to extend my deepest gratitude to all the doctors and FA staff and friends in jos who have visited me, taken care of me, and prayed for me. i am so lucky to be working in a wonderful hospital. i suppose if i had to get malaria, the best place to get it is at FA.

2 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

wow! i sure im glad that you are ok now, that was a real scare. keep up the good work and take care.
love another mom

7/27/2006 3:03 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

now i know the whole story about your sickness. i am very sad to hear what you had been through with no family member. take care.
love.

7/28/2006 6:52 AM  

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