Gauteng is not a malaria area. That is exactly why malaria gets missed here — our patients travel to Limpopo, Mpumalanga, KwaZulu-Natal and across the border, come home, develop a fever, and nobody thinks to ask where they have been.
Malaria is entirely treatable when it is caught early and can kill within days when it is not. The difference is usually a single question and a single blood test.
Before you travel
If you are going to a malaria-risk province or a neighbouring country, ask about antimalarial medication before you go, not when you arrive. Prophylaxis needs to be started ahead of travel and continued after you return to work properly. Mosquito protection matters too: repellent, covered arms and legs after dark, and a net if you are sleeping somewhere unscreened.
Pregnant women and young children are at the highest risk of severe disease and need specific advice rather than general advice.
After you travel
Any fever within weeks of returning from a malaria area must be treated as possible malaria until a test says otherwise. The early symptoms are deliberately unhelpful — fever, chills, headache, body aches, sometimes nausea or diarrhoea. They look like flu. That is what makes malaria dangerous in a non-malaria province.
A simple blood test confirms or excludes it, usually within the hour.
Tell the doctor you travelled
This is the single most useful thing you can do. Malaria is missed most often because nobody asks and nobody mentions it. Say where you went and when, even if the trip was a month ago and even if it seems irrelevant.
Why delay is dangerous
Severe malaria develops quickly, and fastest in children and pregnant women. Once it affects the brain, kidneys or blood, treatment becomes far harder. Hours matter more than days.
How we help
- Emergency & Trauma Unit — open 24 hours, seven days a week, on 012 798 7076. Fever after travel is a reason to come in, not to wait for morning.
- Pathology — malaria blood tests on site through Ampath Laboratory, with rapid results.
- Physicians — diagnosis and treatment, and admission where needed. Dr. J Manda, Dr. NR Hlatshwayo, Dr. SM Komati and Dr. SN Mashaba.
- Pharmacy — prophylaxis before you travel, from The Local Choice Pharmacy Botshilu.
- Paediatrics — children with fever after travel are assessed urgently.
Fever after a trip? Do not delay — call our Emergency Unit on 012 798 7076.
