Why you should not rush for a quinine jab
Feb 14, 2010
LIFE was going pretty well for Charles, a 27-year-old lawyer and father of two. But a bout of malaria which was poorly treated has cast a shadow on his future. He is literally immobile. Charles is confined to a wheelchair and can hardly move his legs.
By Arthur Baguma and Lydia Namubiru
LIFE was going pretty well for Charles, a 27-year-old lawyer and father of two. But a bout of malaria which was poorly treated has cast a shadow on his future. He is literally immobile. Charles is confined to a wheelchair and can hardly move his legs.
It started as a mild fever. He then went for a malaria test which turned out positive. He had a quinine injection at a nearby clinic. The next day, he felt numb and weak in the limbs and could hardly move his legs.
Like Charles, 22-year-old Emmanuel Andama, a carpenter in Koboko district, is admitted to Arua Regional Referral Hospital. He is undergoing physiotherapy after his left leg was paralysed following a quinine injection.
“After the injection, I walked home very slowly. I was feeling a lot of pain,†Andama recalls. The pain gradually increased until a month later when he could not walk at all.
His mother says doctors have estimated it will take him about six weeks of physiotherapy before he can properly walk again.
Like Andama and Charles, many people have fallen victim to paralysis as a result of poor quinine administration.
Dr. Misaki Wayengera, a molecular pathologist and lecturer at College of Health Sciences, Makerere University, notes that although quinine is still the most effective drug for acute malaria treatment, its injections need to be handled by professionals.
“Whoever administers the injection should be a person trained to do that. Most people just give the injection spontaneously, and then the quinine spreads around and affects a sensitive nerve on the buttock leading to paralysis,†Misaki explains.
Paralysis may occur when the injection is administered on the wrong part of the buttock where the sciatic nerve is located.
“In many of these cases, the site of injection is wrong,†Denis Mwesigwa, a senior drug inspector at the National Drugs Authority (NDA) says.
The injection should not be administered on the upper quarter of the buttock. After giving the quinine injection, the medical practitioner should rub the buttock area to allow the medicine move.
“If you inject near the nerve, it gets inflamed and this interferes with the nerve functioning. The after-effects will be paralysis.â€
LIFE was going pretty well for Charles, a 27-year-old lawyer and father of two. But a bout of malaria which was poorly treated has cast a shadow on his future. He is literally immobile. Charles is confined to a wheelchair and can hardly move his legs.
It started as a mild fever. He then went for a malaria test which turned out positive. He had a quinine injection at a nearby clinic. The next day, he felt numb and weak in the limbs and could hardly move his legs.
Like Charles, 22-year-old Emmanuel Andama, a carpenter in Koboko district, is admitted to Arua Regional Referral Hospital. He is undergoing physiotherapy after his left leg was paralysed following a quinine injection.
“After the injection, I walked home very slowly. I was feeling a lot of pain,†Andama recalls. The pain gradually increased until a month later when he could not walk at all.
His mother says doctors have estimated it will take him about six weeks of physiotherapy before he can properly walk again.
Like Andama and Charles, many people have fallen victim to paralysis as a result of poor quinine administration.
Dr. Misaki Wayengera, a molecular pathologist and lecturer at College of Health Sciences, Makerere University, notes that although quinine is still the most effective drug for acute malaria treatment, its injections need to be handled by professionals.
“Whoever administers the injection should be a person trained to do that. Most people just give the injection spontaneously, and then the quinine spreads around and affects a sensitive nerve on the buttock leading to paralysis,†Misaki explains.
Paralysis may occur when the injection is administered on the wrong part of the buttock where the sciatic nerve is located.
“In many of these cases, the site of injection is wrong,†Denis Mwesigwa, a senior drug inspector at the National Drugs Authority (NDA) says.
The injection should not be administered on the upper quarter of the buttock. After giving the quinine injection, the medical practitioner should rub the buttock area to allow the medicine move.
“If you inject near the nerve, it gets inflamed and this interferes with the nerve functioning. The after-effects will be paralysis.â€