Day 4

I just now noticed; insecticide made locally seems to be really expensive here. Either everyone's buying so much that the price is blowing up, or the price is the REASON so few people have any. I've been going around giving out free American insecticide and mosquito nets to the local people here.

Day 3

I met with doctors and patients of malaria today. Some of the patients look really bad, and, I mean, REALLY bad. I assured them they'd be okay.
I had to wear protective gear the whole time. It was a little annoying. I also have to spray myself, and my clothes with insecticide. I also have to put mosquito nets over my bed and over my windows, and drench THOSE with insecticide, too.

Day 2

Today, although I had already been drilled on this in training, they told me all about the details of malaria. It's carried by mosquitoes, or, to be more specific, female anopheles mosquitoes. Thanks to the high mosquito population in Brazil, it's endemic here. It's caused by germs called plasmodiums, and they hide in the salivary glands of the anopheles, and enter the humans through their skin when the anopheles bites them. Then, they travel to the liver, enter the bloodstream, and start to reproduce, causing symptoms with the reproduction cycle. It's serious. Malaria falciparum, caused by the plasmodium falciparum bacteria, can kill you or cause permanent brain damage. I don't know which is worse.

Day 1

I got yet another call from the Health Department this morning. One of the workers got infected, in fact, with malaria falciparum, the most severe form of malaria. It can cause brain damage and internal bleeding. He isn't going to make it. I volunteered to come in and replace him. I got on a plane to Brazil this morning and arrived only a few hours ago. There was a man there, and he asked me to tell him if I think I've got any symptoms of malaria. Fever, chills, shaking, sweating, fatigue. Got it.

Day 0

I got a call from the Health Department today. There's a major outbreak of malaria going on in Brazil. Since it's a poor town that can't afford to treat malaria, they sent health care workers and doctors in. I'm not mobilized yet, but if one of the workers comes down with it and can't work, I may be called in.
I'm worried. They told me the village is called Larnon. I think that's the one that my big sister lives in.