Could I possibly have been infected with Malaria?

This may sound like a strange question, but I would love any opinions from medical professionals or anyone who has dealt with Malaria before.

Here goes.....this past Friday morning I was perfectly fine, in excellent health in every way. I go to work, it is an office environment with roughly 15 people in a closed quarter type of atmosphere. My friend Jason comes up to me on Friday morning, saying that he isn't feeling well because the day before he and his wife had to get a malaria vaccination. They are leaving for India next week to finalize the adoption of a new daughter into the family and were required to get the vaccination in order to enter the country. All well and dandy. I used his phone that day, spoke to him within relatively close proximity and even ate from a candy dish that was on his desk.

Friday evening I had a high fever, cold sweats, my lungs and chest felt like they were on FIRE and I could not stop coughing violently. It is now going on Tuesday and I have been so sick, my entire chest and rib cage is in pain from coughing, the fever has subsided a bit, but I am medicated on evey OTC drug known to man. I still feel awful, and I know I most likely have a common but more severe type of respiratory infection. Could this possibly be some form of Malaria? Can a freshly vaccinated person infect an unsuspecting person that encounters them within the initial 24 hour incubation? Any help would be greatly appreciated, this is worse than any common cold or virus that I have ever had.

You can only get malaria by being bitten by a mosquito that carries it or coming in contact with infected blood. Being in close proximity to someone with it is safe. Malaria is a blood-borne pathogen, similar to HIV or hepatitis. I am not sure if the malaria vaccine is a live or dead virus but I think this guy had to be bleeding on his phone or his candy dish for you to have gotten it. Also, the incubation period for malaria can range from 9 to 40 days depending on the type.

So, based on your symptoms and not being able to see you or run any labs, I'd say you have influenza.

Thanks!!!...LOL....I realize now that I was worried all for nothing. I was SO sick the last few days I had really started to wonder what the heck I actually had. I ran a high fever for three days and my chest is still a bit clogged, but all in all 110% improvement now

I have always wondered what it would be like to actually contract malaria, I hear it gives you amazing hallucinations, all well and good except for the whole insanity and agonizing death part I suppose.

You couldve also had pneumonia. That explains the chest congestion, coughing, fever, etc. Since you feel better its all good.

Benign malaria symptoms are similar to influenza and usually are harmless given the proper treatment is administered.

Malignant malaria is usually a bit more dangerous and can be fatal. It can effect the brain and central nervous system. The drug prescibed to treat malignant malaria is Mefloquine which in turn causes sideeffects(such as hallucinations) not the bacteria itself. So no need to worry. You're fine.

It's worse than you think...there IS no malaria vaccine. I'm sort of curious as to what your friend got. The only preventative is to take prophylactic anti-malarials and use a lot of DEET. Usually you get Lariam, which is mefloquine, although there are some other ones they mix it up with these days in order to keep the local malarial strains from becoming resistant.

Malaria isn't caused by a virus or bacterium, it's a protozoan. It has to be passed in blood, so you can get it from a transfusion or if a blood-sucking insect bites an infected person and then you, typically a mosquito.

edit: spelling error

Oh, and ps, it also takes time to manifest malarial symptoms after you actually ARE infected, the malarial life cycle in a human is really complicated; it passes through several life stages in your liver and blood cells.

SOME malaria can hit you right away, but it can take months.

Usually you run a low-grade fever, a bad headache, loss of energy, pain in the kidneys and get the malarial shakes, sometimes jaundice. It's generally not like what you described.

[edit on 16-3-2007 by Tom Bedlam]