Native women in Africa, Asia, and Latin America have been nursing babies
during malaria attacks for thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of years.

European and American women who live in the tropics have been taking
anti-malarial drugs throughout pregnancy and while nursing their children,
who were also taking anti-malarial drugs from birth on, for many years.

I took anti-malarial drugs and nursed my oldest from when she was 15 months
until she was 36 months -- no one ever expressed any concern at all about
nursing and taking chloroquine, and my daughter was also taking chloroquine.

What this mom needs is a course of the drugs that kill the parasites that
encyst in her liver and are coming out periodically to make her sick again.
There is no reason for anyone today to have to live with relapsing malaria.
The drugs you take to kill the ones in the liver are different than the ones
you take for everyday prevention or for treatment of a current attack, they
are based on sulpha drugs rather than quinine.  Hope she can find a doctor
who knows how to treat malaria!



Katherine A. Dettwyler, Ph.D.
Texas A&M University