Side effects of malaria pills and a strange bug bite
 

I posted this question on the Latin America board but I thought someone over here might have some input as well:

I've just returned from the Peruvian jungle and I'm still taking Malarone for the next several days. I feel so strange, I have a headache, dizziness and I'm tired all the time. I've already called the doctor and I hope to get in today, but I wonder if anyone else has had any of these same symptoms?

Also I have a very strange bite on my leg, it's shaped like the letter J. Is it a centipede maybe?? I hope it wasn't a bat. :-O

Thanks for any input.

first you should let your blood check to exclude a malaria infection.

second regarding the bite:
i cannot help with that one but of course you show it to your physician as well.

once i got a spider bite in png (wasn't aware of it at all as there was nothing). couldn't felx my foot after 12 hours and it got worse within the next 36 hours. flew back to australia and got antibiotics.
after 3 months back to europe i got flue like symptoms. blood check said 32000 white blood cells; my physician thought about leukemia. i got that flue like symptom for the following 3 weeks once a week and any blood check came out showing lesser white blood cells...back to nromal after a 5 week course of strange symptoms.
obviously my body had been working on that infection for almost 4 months to get rid of it :-(
opinion delivered by several physicians: must have been a spider bite.
nasty things happen........

good luck and pls post the result of the examination.

would very much like to learn what happend - also regarding the bite.

thanks and i hope you feel better soon!

div

Thanks for your reply divine. It looks like I'll be seeing her tomorrow morning so I'll report back when I know more.

... and if your doctor cannot answer specifically, get yourself to a hospital for blood work by a tropial diseases specialist.

My sister and another traveler on our Tanzania trip last year had significant side effects (nausea, dizziness, etc.) from Malarone, severe enough to be taken off the drug. If it's the Malarone and you test negative for malaria, see about getting off of it. The other traveler's doc took her off Malarone and finished her up on Larium. My sister took a malaria test in Zanzibar, was negative, and dropped the Malarone.

Hi PM,

It sounds like your bite is too large to be a bat bite. However, even if this was a casual encounter with a bat and you think a bite may be a possibility I would mention this to your doctor.

It is very rare to be bitten by a bat but it does happen. About six years ago, I had taken several youth on a camping trip and one morning three of the young men were laughing and chatting away at breakfast recalling how the last two nights they have been attacked by a *giant moth*. They each had to keep brushing and flinging it off until they finally retreated under their blankets for sleep. Hmmm…

I took a peek into their Adirondack shelter and sure enough -- there was a bat up in the corner of the ceiling. Drats! Emergency room visits on camping trips are such a pain but I had to be safe as they were not my sons! A local rangerish fellow said to go on ahead to the emergency room because the wait will be very long and he will join us shortly after he secures the bat for testing.

Unbelievably, there was enough of the bat left to test after being blasted by the shotgun (no kidding, that was his method for securing the bat) and the bat did test positive for rabies. Had to make that joyous call to their parents and tell them the good news… :o

When I returned from Africa in 2006 I discovered a bat in my Maytag Cave and when looking for information about my new boarder I came across this rather amusing and useful bat tale (http://www.snreview.org/0406Myskowski.html).

Good luck, I hope you are able to identify the bite and hope you feel better very soon.

Den

Hello all.

I'm back from the doctor's office and she said the bite is from an insect. She thinks an animal bite would have a different shape and there would be torn skin, whereas this is a series of puncture wounds. They took some blood to make sure I don't have any diseases, but she thinks the sick feeling is just the malaria pills as I suspected. I asked about getting new pills but she said it's only a couple more days so go ahead w/Malarone. I can tough it out a few more days, I'm mainly relieved to know the bite isn't serious.

Thanks again for your replies and for sharing your stories.

happy you!

have you also got weird dreams while taking malarone?

if you get flu like symptoms - think of a spider bite....;-)

keep well!

div