Quick one…

I had a big fever on Friday, gone by Saturday evening… nothing unusual in this for me since I have recurring malaria (only about once every 5 years these days). Think is… since then… I have lost my appetite. Not in a small way either, pretty much totally gone. On a good day I am managing perhaps a bowl of cereal and a couple of slices of toast.

Feel fine in myself other than no energy. But given the fairly outdoorsy physical nature of my job I really need to find my appetite again and really quite soon.

Any suggestions.

(Going to the doctors seems futile since it takes days to get an appointment and when I do get there they seem fairly useless at actually sorting anything out… and NHS direct loves to say that you have cancer for every symptom I ever put into it, which I don’t… hopefully…)

Feline Immune Deficiency Syndrome ?

Male Temporary Fever (and) Unwellness ?

– you’d better hope it’s not the latter, brother (I’d link the youtube if I CBA)

I seem to remember from my infectious disease module that loss of appetite is associated with malaria flare ups.

If your not bothering to go to the doctors it’s probably best if you start reading some detailed sources about the disease.

Malaria is not to be **** around with though, you should really check yourself in – as there are drugs to treat certain types of recurring malaria.

Last time I checked my only option was a prolonged drip of high strength Mefloquine/Larium which the low dose version nearly sent me off to the big house… hence I have lived with it for 19 years 😉

Sounds like a lighly reason though – have read up loads about the two flavours I had. The nasty one doesnt recur (to my knowledge) and the mild one isn’t too much of a problem at the moment. Never really had a prolonged appetite loss afterwards though, usually passes and I crave bacon, which I always presumed was my body telling me it wanted salt post fever (not had that this time which is dissapointing)

There’s other drugs available eg Primaquine but I don’t know whether this is licensed for general use in the UK and can only be offered if you’ve run out of all other options (which you seem to have done) but I can’t be to sure as I can’t find the UK guidelines on the drug, just crap wiki articles. I’ll have a deeper look for you when I have time – up to my eyeballs in work atm.

There are other drugs in the pipeline as well – it might be other getting in contact with someone from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.

This isn’t really something for forums, this is something you should be approaching a consultant with – check this out. http://www.uclh.nhs.uk/ourservices/servicea-z/htd/Pages/Home.aspx

Cheers, good to know there are some alternatives coming along – never want to go near the stuff I was taking back then again!

I shall keep an eye on developments though as it will no doubt be back in hiding in my liver again for another few years again now (the periods between bouts had been getting longer until settling on about 5 years apart, give or take a few months – usually following something that has given my immune system a bit of a kicking).

Never had the loss of appetite before (other than during the actual attack and perhaps 24 hours afterwards when I was too knackered to think about anything other than sleeping), and was just a wee bit curious as to what was going on. I am sure normal service will resume imminently though!