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Tanzania has become the new favorite tourist destination of tourists from all over the world, including Bulgarians. The exotic destination has become one of the few allowed to enter during the coronavirus pandemic.
Increasingly, however, tourists bring from there not only pleasant impressions, but also fatal diseases. Get acquainted with several of these stories shared by pochivka.blitz.bg.
Deadly parasites
A mother and her two-year-old daughter returned from Tanzania to their native Perm, Russia, in November last year. In January, the girl’s temperature rose sharply. It was 40 degrees, had a fever, and no antipyretic medicine helped. The mother suspected a tropical infection. A private clinic diagnosed him with African trypanosomiasis or, more simply, sleeping sickness. It is a parasitic infection caused by the triponosome single-celled parasites. They penetrate into the blood of a person and cause fever and at the same time a state of drowsiness in the patient.
Such an infection is spread by tsetse flies – the bite site turns red, after which an ulcer appears.
The baby was in intensive care for two days. Doctors from the Urals did not confirm sleeping sickness: they replaced the diagnosis with “unspecified parasitic disease”, which essentially does not change the situation. The tsetse fly can transmit other diseases. However, the Zanzibar authorities do not officially recognize that they have this type of insect on the island, as they deny the possibility of contracting trypanosomiasis. That is why none of the tourists receive special vaccinations before flying to Tanzania.
Death of a teenager in Vologda
Dasha, 15, was on vacation with her mother in Zanzibar from November 1 to 11 last year. They wore masks and maintained social distancing. Also commonly used antiseptics. But on the beach the girl was bitten by a mosquito. The sting site reddened, but the swelling soon subsided. A few days after his return, the girl fell ill. His mother called an ambulance, but doctors first checked for COVID-19.
Dasha’s temperature rose to 42 degrees and then dropped. And everything was repeated. Nausea and vomiting were added to the fever. An ambulance was called four times. Doctors were told that the girl was in Africa. But none of the doctors even suggested early malaria. As a result, Dasha was hospitalized – her temperature dropped to 35 degrees. It was only at the hospital that a blood test showed tropical malaria. But it was too late and the girl died in intensive care.
The mayor’s son died in Izhevsk.
Alexander Donskoy, the son of the former Arkhangelsk mayor and father of five, also died in Zanzibar last fall. After a break, he flew to Moscow, then to Kazan, and when he reached Izhevsk, he felt bad. Alejandro became ill and had a fever. An ambulance came twice, but it also checked the patient for coronavirus first. No one admitted the possibility of malaria. Of the whole family, only Alejandro got sick.
For the third time, the ambulance team hospitalized Alexander. At the hospital, he fell into a coma, at the same time that he was diagnosed with malaria. The patient’s father tried to save him and bring malaria medicine from Moscow (later it turned out that there were also medicines in the hospital, but for some reason they didn’t use them), but while he was bringing them, his son died.
One died, the other survived
Kazan resident Marat Yakupov, 44, visited Zanzibar in the fall and went on safari. He was with a friend during the trip. However, due to heavy rains, they were unable to return to the hotel. So they decided to spend the night outside by the fire. There they were bitten by insects. When he returned home, Marat had a fever. On November 27, he independently identified the symptoms of the disease by reading on the Internet about Alexander Donskoy, who died in Izhevsk a week earlier. Marat was hospitalized, but two days later his internal organs were denied. His friend also contracted malaria, but survived.
All of these stories speak of at least two things.
First: due to insufficient medical training of emergency personnel, in at least two out of every three deaths, a timely diagnosis would save lives.
Second, prevention before the holidays is important. Do not trust tour operators who do not inform tourists about the dangers of contracting tropical diseases. It is better to think about the prevention of malaria and possible vaccines against other diseases that exist on the African continent. Even if they are not confirmed there by the official authorities. To do this, before the trip it is better to go to the local clinic and consult.
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