Medicine in Malawi or lack of

This week Monica, one of my nannies, called in sick for work.  We were leaving that day for Lilongwe so after calling in another nanny to cover for her we commenced our trip.  About an hour out of town we received a call from her neighbor that we needed to come and take Monica to the hospital as she had malaria.  In Malawi, “go to the hospital” usually means they need to go and get medicine and I assumed she just wanted me to pay for the medicine because we always do.  I explained that we were out of town and to stop by the nursery and pick up money so they could buy malaria medicine.  What I didn’t know was that they needed someone to literally take her to the hospital because she was so sick she couldn’t walk and had no way to get there. 

When I returned home two days later, I asked how she was doing and another nanny said that she had been admitted to the hospital (they had to hire a car to take her) but that they had no malaria drugs to give her so she went home the next day.  This astounds me because of the huge number of people that get malaria and die every year here.  I don’t know the statistics but it is a huge problem.  You see brand new Land Cruisers with UNICEF, WorldAid, FeedTheChildren and many others names, with each costing between $40,000 - $100,000 driving around but the hospitals have no medicine for the people.  It is possible to buy the medicine at the pharmacy but it costs more. 

We keep malaria medicine at the house for our employees and ourselves so when I returned I rushed to her home but her daughter had gone to the pharmacy that morning and purchased quinine.  The problem with quinine is that it feels like it will kill you and not the malaria.  Thankfully she is doing better each day and hoping to return to work next week.