Resolved question:
Hiya
I have just got back from working in africa and thought what i had was malaria but the doctors confirmed it was not and now I am a little perplexed as to why they could not tell me what I had.
I was seeing a girl in africa at the end of MArch, had sexual relations twice but used a condom on both occasions.
On Tuesday past I felt my muscles were extremely weak when at work. I took some paracetamol and carried on with work as normal.
In the evening I felt far more poorly and took coartem malaria tablets.
THat night I sweated loads, felt awful but went to work on Wednesday.
In the afternoon I went to see the doctor( this is in Mali Bamako where I work), he said I did not have malaria in my blood but this could be due to the coartem I had taken. He suggested I finish the coartem course.
I travelled home to the UK on Wednesday night. I felt awful. Body was very weak.
Got tired everytime I tried to walk.
Asked to see a doctor at Paris airport. I was told if I did I would miss my flight so I travelled straight to London then went to the local hospital.
They tested me for malaria and said I did not have it. They sent me to the hospital of tropical diseases in London. They said on the Friday that I did not have malaria also.
I'm now feeling a lot better but I ma still a bit sweaty. No longer have a temperature. Had a sore throat yesterday but that has now gone.
What could it be? I had blood tests on Thursday at the first hospital. I called this morning and they said that if I had not been called back there was no urgent problem with my blood results.
The hospital of tropical medicine are calling me next week with my results.
They said the fact that I am feeling 100 times better should give me peace.
However, I ma surprised that they could not / have nto told me what I was suffering from?
Submitted:
4 Days
Category:
HIV- AIDS Specialist
Hello. Thank you for posting your query at DoctorSpring.com
I am glad to assist you. I understand your concern.
Let me summarize the main points from your history. So you developed muscle weakness and you got yourself checked immediately for malaria, but it was negative.
You had sexual relations with a girl, but that doesn't seem significant with the symptoms you described.
You kept feeling muscle weakness for a long time, took Coartem, finished the course.
The good thing is you're better.
Firstly malaria is ruled out. If you had multiple blood tests and all came out negative, then it can be ruled out. There are lots of other tropical diseases which are common in africa like Chaga's disease, Dengue, Leishmaniasis, Leptospirosis ( e.t.c ) which will present with fever and muscle aches, and some other added symptoms that can overlap.
It can even be just a bad viral infection that you picked up. Moreover what i understood from your history is that due to work, you have to travel a lot and your body is constantly under that stress, which leads to problems like chronic muscle fatigue, where it becomes very difficult to even move around. It is associated with that debilitating feeling of being extremely sick. That can even be a possibility. I need to know what tests they ran on you, and if they gave you back any reports.
I will also advise you to take Tab. Doxycycline 100 mg twice daily for 7 days after food, since it is effective against most tropical diseases. Even though you're in recovery state, you can take the drug, any latent infection will be cured.
I really feel you need to take a few days off. This traveling has also taken a toll on your body.
Please upload your reports when they are ready. Also do not worry you're in recovery state now and you should be fine in the next couple of days.
Hope that was helpful,
Regards