Dear Dr., How long after taking typhoid and malaria medications before one can do another blood check to see if it has gone completely?
– Vera Ibilo, Igarra, Edo State
Dear Vera,
Well, take this from me. If malaria, for example, is correctly treated, the patient CANNOT have symptoms, complaints or positive laboratory indices AT ALL for a period of at least 28 days, no matter how many parasite-laden mosquitoes bite and inject malaria parasites into their blood stream. You can see from that statement that the correct question to ask is did you get the right treatment for your malaria? Did you get the right treatment for your typhoid fever?
In this regard, the problem of inadequate treatment for both malaria and typhoid is very rampant in Nigeria right now. Suffice it to say that lots of people who have treated malaria with medicines given by their health care providers are being embarrassed with resurfacing symptoms of malaria within a month; within a fortnight! Too many folks are just managing themselves; the patient returning to complain again and needing treatment again with another dose of anti-malarials within a month! This question was once the topic of discussion on NTA, Channel 91, which got a panel of experts together that could not give any satisfactory answer!!
Well, Wikipedia said, “current practice in treating cases of malaria is based on the concept of combination therapy (e.g., Coartem), since this offers several advantages, including reduced risk of treatment failure, reduced risk of developing resistance, enhanced convenience, and reduced side-effects.” The combination is Artemisinine-based; that is Artemisinine or derivative plus other anti-malarials. In my own experience, the malaria parasites have developed drug resistance to those antimalarials. So, I avoid the use of the common ones. I look for anti-malarial preparations that have ingredients such as quinine, camoquin or amodiaquine; piperaquine; sulphadoxine with pyrimethamine in combination with the Artemisinine-based main drug. All combinations that have other drugs, I do not trust; they generally fail and cause the kind of problem we have stated above.
With the ones I have described, I generally record perfect treatment outcomes. In the case of typhoid, the correct antibiotic chosen to treat it must be taken the correct number of times per day for a minimum of 15 days for lasting effect. Most of the time folks abandon the 15 day treatment and do just about a week and then expect to fully get well. Usually, this is where the problem lies in cases like yours.
You can call for further help.
Sexless and threatened marriage from chronic vaginitis
Dear Dr.,
I am very grateful for the day I decided to call you and chat with you because you were the person God used to heal my struggling marriage and me. I could no longer have sex with my husband for whom I have already had three children. And this scary situation was on-going for at least two years before I met you.
My husband was getting tired of all my complaints but the truth was that I just could not accommodate him inside me anymore during sex. I was itching in my womanhood and it was itching to nonsense!!! It shut off sex for me even though I loved and wanted to make love to my husband.
I saw several doctors in Nigeria who treated me without any lasting solution. My mother’s younger brother in the USA is a medical laboratory scientist. So when I visited that country, he supervised my laboratory tests and personally made sure I saw really good doctors, but the outcome was funny. The best diagnosis the medical system in America gave me was that I may be suffering from Herpes!!!
Even without being a medical person, I queried it. From my general knowledge and what I knew about herpes as a media person, that diagnosis was suspect. You gave me an appointment and by the time you finished your very thorough and intelligent review of my case with the history, medical laboratory tests and physical examination, you proclaimed that you were looking at about five different things that were linked. You started your explanation of my case by locating when and what started the domino effect. My losing a very major business connection about when the trouble started you were at pains to let me understand, put great stress on my immune system and caused me to go into lowered immunity, which led to my allowing pre-diabetic state with Borderline increased blood sugar. This now made Chronic Vaginal Candidiasis to punish me so badly and threatened my marriage and family!!!
You then proceeded to correct my Pre-diabetes with natural medication, which you said was gentler on the system than the orthodox and presto. I found myself getting into the sack with my dear husband again and we were really having fun times. I am very grateful.
Yinka Kamson, Lekki; Lagos.
Dear Yinka,
We have to thank God, not me. He owns all understanding and knowledge out of which He gave us a little. I must confess your case gave me some sleepless nights, but God is faithful. Stress, as an underlying cause of disease, must not be neglected by the astute physician. The other challenge was when you started to balk at taking the preparation we gave you to boost your immunity. I knew that was a potential cause of failed treatment.
However, I am thankful to God and members of your family who persuaded you to take your medication as prescribed. Thank God that you are well and your marriage is stronger for it, today. Marriage is always well worth fighting for.
Congratulations. Concerning “When Genital Itching Refuses to Stop,” please see www. mediamedix.blogspot.com.