SPANISH CITIZEN - JUAN ARMANDO BESCOS (52 YEARS OLD)

I suffered from this disease at the age of 27 in Luanda, ANGOLA. It started one morning and because of the symptoms I knew it was malaria, I went to a pharmacy and bought Resochin from Bayer, chloroquine.

I took the prescribed therapeutic dose for the disease, not the prophylaxis dose - which I think I remembered was 6 pills per dose and then 2 every hour or so, I don't remember anymore.

That same night the disease worsened and at dawn I presented a picture of intense headaches, high fever, body tremors and bone pain. I went to a doctor, and they tested me for malaria, it came back positive and he injected me with quinine and gave me some tablets, I think it was one (maybe two) every six hours.

That same night the picture worsened and they took me back to the doctor, leaving me admitted to a clinic. Aside from the severe headaches, tremors, and widespread pain and increasing fever, he had hallucinations every time he closed his eyes and vomited with profuse bleeding. I was injected with quinine in the dropper serum, I do not know in what dose. So I spent about 24 hours more, at the end of which I began to experience a slight improvement as my fever dropped. Also due to exhaustion I was able to sleep and rest.

Quinine was injected into me no longer in the serum but in the buttock, every 8 hours.

I was discharged and I was taking quinine pills every 6 hours. I gradually improved, although my recovery was not total until after two months at least, the weakness, the frequent dizziness, the exhaustion.

I want to point out that before the disease I had a strong constitution and ran at a good pace every day, recovering the condition to the same level as before the disease took me many more months. The amount of Plasmodium falciparum indicated by the tests he had was 30 per field, which, and this was told to me by the doctor who treated me when I recovered, in a Caucasian target is fatal, in fact he told me that he had been very lucky and that he believed he would not get over it.