Malaria Update!

Tomorrow morning, at about 5:30am EST, I will be infected with Malaria.  It's part of the Vaccine Trial I volunteered for.  You can read more about the study here.

Friends have expressed concern.  Family have evinced a growing leeriness about my presence.

First of all, it is nearly impossible for me to infect anyone else.  Go read the wiki article about Malaria, it's not "contagious" like a virus. I would have to be bitten by a mosquito of a particular breed, "the definitive hosts for malaria parasites are female mosquitoes of the Anopheles genus."   It's not a mosquito that breeds in Maryland.  So you can't get Malaria from me, and unless you show up with a jar full of non-native mosquitoes, I won't be a vector for your infection either.

I've also been asked about recurrence; Malaria never goes away, right?
 
Not the kind I will be exposed to; I am being bitten by mosquitoes that have the most serious type of malaria, P. falciparum.  That's serious and all, but it means I will not be at risk to suffer a recurrence; if I get it, they treat me, and it's done.  Check it out;

Recurrent malaria

Malaria recurs after treatment for three reasons:
Recrudescence occurs when parasites are not cleared by treatment (See the post-infection process below)
Reinfection indicates complete clearance with new infection established from a separate infective mosquito bite.
Relapse is specific to P. vivax and P. ovale and involves re-emergence of blood-stage parasites from latent parasites (hypnozoites) in the liver.

I'll get bit today.  Malaria has an incubation of 7 to 21 days.  Starting Tuesday July 17th, and for the following two weeks, I will be sleeping in the hospital.  I can leave during the day, but if I start to exhibit any malaria symptoms, they'll keep me.  They'll test me daily for Malaria, and once I test positive, they will treat me for it until I test negative twice in a row.

So I won't experience Recrudescence.  I can't have a relapse.

It's a *little* worrisome, but seriously, life is a serious of calculated risks anyway.  If this works, I did a little tiny bit to make the world tremendously safer.  If it doesn't, *shrug* I'll be feverish for a few days and get paid very well for it.

And hey, free orange juice.