Question: Have you ever had worms as a result of your fieldwork?

Anouk Gouvras answered on 15 Jun 2012:

Hi helena15, so far no but it could happen! I have to be careful when I collect my samples, I need to protect myself from all sorts of diseases not just the wormy ones. I have to make sure all my vaccines are up to date (such as hepatitis A and B, yellow fever, typhoid, tetanus, rabies etc), I only drink bottled water, not from the tap or a well and I am careful about food and personal hygiene (so many things can be avoided by simply washing your hands regularly). I have to wear insect repellent as a lot of viral, microbial, and parasitic disease are spread through the bite of certain insects such as mosquitoes, sandflies, tseste flies etc. And I take a pill that protects me from malaria (a disease that is transmitted by the bite of a mosquito) every single day that I am in a malaria country.

In fact I have had malaria. In 2007 I was in Kenya and I go infected even though I was taking my malaria preventative treatment and wearing insect repellent. However it was probably my fault, I was very tired and had so much to do that I forgot to take the pill at the right time. I took it several hours later but by that time it was too late. The malaria parasite was already in me and multiplying. (Note to all: if you are taking malarone, the main preventitive treatment for malaria, you have to take it at the same time every day!).
I felt fine for two weeks, I went back home to the UK and then went back for another fieldtrip to Niger, West Africa. As soon as I arrived I started feeling ill, like I had a very, very bad flu. Silly me I didn’t make the connection. It was only when I told a friend of mine (who is a medical Dr in Niger) that I was in Kenya two weeks before that she made the connection and immediately collected a blood sample from me, diagnosed me with Plasmodium falciparum (the deadly kind of malaria) and put me on treatment straight away. Thanks to her I returned to the UK malaria free and I live to tell the tale. I even got to look at my blood slide under the microscope and see the malaria parasites in it. I found that quite cool (its the not knowing what you have that’s scary, once you are diagnosed and on treatment its all good). But having malaria was NOT nice, in fact it was down right horrible.

It is important before you travel to check out travel advice for the country you are going to. At work we need to fill in a risk assessment report each time we go on field-trips. I also check this out when I’m going somewhere for fun. Best to be informed. I use the FCO (foreign and commonwealth office) travel advice website: http://www.fco.gov.uk/en/travel-and-living-abroad/ and the NaTHNac (national travel health network and centre) website http://www.nathnac.org/travel/index.htm