April 24, 2006 - Kights Letter

Dear Kathy, Don, Sarah and Kenneth,

Hey guys, how's it going? Hope you guys are doing well this spring. I know you've been pretty busy, but I hope everything is going well despite.

This letter , I'm going to write a bit about Larium. The drug I have to take every week to avoid contracting Malaria. Larium is a powerful drug that really should only be taken every 2 weeks to 20 days, but the Peace Corps wants us to take weekly in order to establish a habit of not forgetting.

The unfortunate side-effects include depression, hallucinations and extremely vivid-dreams. It's hard to tell whether I've experienced depression more than I ought to here, but I'm sure some of my moods have been affected. I've had no hallucinations that can be noted, but I have had some somewhat macabre musings on how to kill cats in most violent manner. The most evident side effect I've experienced is the vivid dreams. They of course range in all subjects from the mundate to the grotesque.

One that I remember vividly, along with the taste was dream sequenceI was a buffet of strawberries and chocolate. That one was delightful. But the dreams, the nightmares really can be very distrubing. Mostly for the reason that they are so vivid it's hard to tell or remember that they are dreams and that I can simply wake up. I won't go into detail, but it's enough to say they are graphic. Thankfully, I don't have distrubing dreams every night, but more than once a week is not uncommon.

Many volunteers cannot take Larium, because their reaction is much more sever than mine. One volunteer had to change medications because he said, "I was seriously planning to kill the children of my village". He knew exactly how he was going to do it. When he realized the extent of his intention and detail of his thoughts, he decided to call the doctors.

Another volunteer had such vivid dreams that they transfered into hallucinations so scary that she became severly paranoid. Such that she found herself in the middle of the night, clutching a knife, standing in the middle of her courtyard, afraid to go back into her house.

Most volunteers negative reactions lead mostly to nauseau, insomnia, or loss of hair. These symtoms are not enough, usually, to be allowed to change medications. Reason being the number of effective medications that prevent Marlaria is only 3. Larium, Deoxycycline and Malarone. Deoxycycline is the alternative medication that volunteers have to take daily if they are not on Larium. It's side effects include sun sensitivity and nauseau. Malarone is only used to combat a full blown case of Malaria and is a last resort and can't be used as a preventative.

Chloroquine, which has been in use for a couple decades now is so overused by the Africans that they've actually helped develop resistant strains to it. It's still taken today, but it's use is so common it's almost pointless. They are about to change their protocal for use in June, though, which is heartening.

So in case your wondering if I've had Malaria yet, the answer is yes. I still do. These medication (Larium and Deoxycycline) only prevent the spread of Malaria in your body, keeping it from attacking all your organs. If I stop taking them, that's when I have to worry. Malarone, the reason it's the last resort, actually gets rid of the microbe and allows you to live Malaria free. However, I still won;t be able to give blood for ten years, due to some chance not all the Malaria is gone. There goes my donor card for the Red Cross. Bummer.

So, now you know all you need to on drugs and Malaria. Good Times.
Hope you learned a lot :) I'll let you go, take care and see you in June.

Love Laura