Malaria victim says he got dreaded disease in Guyana

BRAZIL-BORN Jefferson Van Sertima, 22, the country’s first reported malaria victim in three years, told Newsday from his Ward 9 bedside at the San Fernando General Hospital yesterday, he believed he had contracted the disease while in Guyana en route to Brazil. Van Sertima, a printer, said he returned to Trinidad to visit his mother, a resident of Freeport. He said after almost dying from the disease and effecting a full recovery while in Guyana, he had “relapsed” after returning to this country and had been checked into hospital by his relatives. Van Sertima has been at the hospital for the past seven days and sleeps under a mosquito net in the hospital ward where he underwent full treatment for the disease, including drips and a full course of antibiotics. “Right now I just looking forward to coming out of here and rejoining my family,” Sertima said, adding that he may return to Brazil to enlist in the Brazilian Armed Services. However, he expressed trepidation at returning to Guyana saying that the disease had also affeceted one of his cousins in Guyana.

Meanwhile, SWRHA communications officer, Zenobia Nanan, while confirming that Van Sertima had the disease, pointed out that the case was “imported” into the country. She said that the young man had also undergone the full malaria treatment, while samples of his blood had been sent for further testing. However, she could not say when he would be released and referred all questions about the country’s state of preparedness for malaria to the Ministry of Health. Malaria is a serious disease caused by a parasite. It is contracted through the bite of an infected female Anopheles mosquito. Symptoms include fever and flu-like illness including chills, headaches and muscle aches.