Africa 2012 Live from Android

Diagnosis

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It’s raining pretty badly in Maputo this weekend, and I’m still not 100% back on my feet. What about giving me a diagnosis, my dear super smart friends?

For more than a week now, I have had:
1. A sore and slightly swollen throat, in the place where my right tonsil would have been, had it not been removed.
2. A bitter taste in the back of my mouth.
3. A body temperature below 36 degrees.
4. A slow/sad mood.

I had strep almost monthly when I was a kid, usually without fever. This is the reason to why my tonsils were removed seven years ago – and I have basically not had infections in the throat since then.

I have some serious trust issues here in Maputo after hearing horror stories about the healthcare and after trying it myself.. basically, it costs a fortune, takes forever, and the doctors tell you nothing new. And ooh – if you insist, you get medicine that might have been banned in Europe many years ago.

Anyway, If there’s something that really upsets me it’s doctors that write prescriptions for strong antibiotics without being sure about the diagnosis. Oh, and a random detail: when selling pills here, they take the exact amount out of the box in the pharmacy – so you really have to beg to get the pamphlet that is supposed to accompany the pills.

Anyway, I will see if I can indulge in ginger/lemon/honey tea to treat this, hoping that it’s not streptococcis. And if it doesn’t get any better soon I might go for another study visit to a Maputo clinic. You’re joining, right?

1 comment

  1. More likely viral than bacterial, but who knows, since you don’t have any flu-like symptoms. Wouldn’t self-medicate anti-biotics on something like this without testing first. The bitter taste is oftent a yeast infection, but you would normally see that on your tongue (as kind of a white layer on top of your tongue and liquid shit at the other end….). Strep throat is also quite common in Mozambique, and I have been told that the strep strain here is much stronger than elsewhere. Did you survive?

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