no puking last night; nope, none to speak of at all - miracle drug for Malaria in Africa: Coartem
 
Tuesday, December 11 ‘07
There’ll be no puking in Africa this Christmas . . . la, la, la hmmm
 
Scientists say that malaria is ONLY carried by the FEMALE anopheles mosquito. Bad girls. The CDC website explains: General Information There are approximately 3,500 species of mosquitoes grouped into 41 genera. Human malaria is transmitted only by females of the genus Anopheles. Of the approximately 430 Anopheles species, only 30-40 transmit malaria (i.e., are "vectors") in nature. They go on and on and on so click on the CDC above and you can go read some more if you want. I’ve seen an anopheles before at a museum, under a microscope. They are small little buggers. So small, in fact, that you can barely see them with the naked eye (how else is an eye, by the way, but naked? NO --- butt naked . . . but ~ naked.) Anyhow, the anopheles feeds between 10 p.m. and 5 a.m. THUS EXPLAINING WHY OUR 6-YEAR-OLD DAUGHTER, KATERISHA (KATIA) NEVER GETS MALARIA. Her bedtime is around 8. If you can see the mosquito in Africa, it’s probably not the bad girl. Too big. Of if it’s not within those hours . . . probably not the diva-devil either. But if you are foolish enough (as we often are) to remain outside of a net after 10 p.m. --- you may get a terrible, disgusting, awful surprise a week or so later. I’ve got it now. Tayte and Jordan have it, too. Little parasites . . . um, (I’ll keep this PG) multiplying inside of your veins and shooting out your red blood cells, exploding them into a billion, worthless pieces. There was puking in the bathroom going on two nights ago but I’d like to tell the world: World . . . there was NO puking last night. Amen! We moved here in 2000 and a drug called Coartem hadn’t yet made it into most shops by then. So we used other stuff. Not good. Sometimes you could go days and finish your treatment and still have malaria. My joined-at-the-hip, Brian, went two weeks once on different treatments -- totally bed-ridden. Poor guy. Poor me, too, because I don’t like it when he’s sick. So --- poor both of us. But then we got introduced to the miracle drug called Coartem. Ever since then . . . if we have ever had malaria ---- it usually clears up within 3 days. Can you hear the angels singing a Hallalujah chorus with Kanye West rapping (clean version) in the background? I can. It sounds cool. Because malaria (like the anopheles mosquito) SUCKS. I wouldn’t wish it on my worst enemy (who will, in case you’re wondering, remain nameless.) Coartem costs around $7. Treatment lasts 3 days. And if you ever want to hear my “malaria-speech” in case you are coming to Africa, just ask. You WILL BE FLYING BACK TO WHEREVER YOUR SWEET-LITTLE-SELF CAME FROM with a dose of Coartem after hearing my speech. I guarantee you that. MALARIA: take it seriously. Or it will do just that to you: Take you, seriously.http://www.cdc.gov/malaria/biology/mosquito/shapeimage_3_link_0