DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO: What Sick Means to Me Is Not What It Means to You

DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO: What Sick Means to Me Is Not What It Means to You

Malaria CongoMalaria has been in the news this week.  Or, rather, the antimalarial medication mefloquine has been getting a lot of attention.  The FDA recently issued a black box warning on this old standard for soldiers, vacationers, and expats in faraway, mosquito-infested lands.  Faraway lands like the Congo, where I live with my husband and two small children.

For us, malaria is always on our minds.  We think about the disease as we spray on our daily layer of chemicals in the morning, shun outside games at dusk, and gaze through the gauze of the nets above our beds just before closing our eyes at night.  My son was even an Anopheles mosquito for Halloween one year.  Malaria is that scary—and also that normal—for our family. (more…)