QUESTION

I am from Indore (India). I was affected by malaria positive vivax. My doctor give me some tablet but soon my fever is gone. After few months my fever is come back and fever is repeated every time but does not leave for long time. Fever will repeated after few hours. What can I do?

ANSWER

It sounds like you might have recurring P. vivax malaria. This is when the malaria is treated in the blood stage of infection, but some parasites are able to remain dormant in the liver, and come back and cause disease later on. You should talk to your doctor about taking primaquine—this is a drug that can kill the liver stages and thus prevent future relapses of infection. However, you should be tested for G6DP deficiency first. Also, when you experience a recurrence of the fever, you should still go to your doctor for diagnosis, to confirm that you do have malaria and not another disease. The symptoms of malaria are very generic and can be mistaken for many other things.