Sunday, January 23, 2011

Taking Quinine

I am somewhat surprised that I am taking a version of Quinine for my trip. My pharmacist immediately knew what it was for. He personally takes it for his trips to India and the store had it in stock. Officer "where are you traveling".

I was surprised to learn that even people like my pharmacist and natives lose their resistance over time. My doctor told me of a native Nigerian who caught Malaria and was diagnosed in NYC.

One would think Science would have come up with something better than Quinine. I have been eating the local produce to gain some familiarity with the food. However, this may sound funny that even in this bizarre small village one can get Chinese food quickly.

4 comments:

Ducky's here said...

Aren't you on a security blackout?

beakerkin said...

I have yet to leave and am still in NYC.

SecondComingOfBast said...

Interestingly enough, quinine was what women used to take to induce abortions way back in the day before abortion ever became discussed as a political issue. I'm talking back in the thirties, and before. Something they used, though not as much because it was more dangerous, was turpentine.

Alligator said...

Quine was used by Peruvian Indians to cure fevers. They chewed the bark of the chichona tree. Jesuit priests in the 1500s began importing the bark to Europe for treatment of fevers. As Pagan pointed out, using the bark in raw form had some dangers. Lewis and Clark took along chichona bark on their exploration and actually used some as poultice for a rattlesnake bite. In the 1830s, a Missouri physician, Dr. John Sappington refined chichona bark into a pure, pill form which was more effective and less dangerous to take. Sappington's pills were mass marketed throughout the South and Western territories. Quinine was standard treatment for malaria until synthetics were developed in the 1940s. However, sometimes its use is preferred over the synthetics for various reasons.