Tilburg arrival

Unfortunately, I arrived a week delayed in Tilburg due to my Malaria. And I find the recovery of fitness is going rather slowly. Of course, this is not a complaint, as this kind of Malaria is still a life threatening disease and it seems no surprise that a full recovery is not done in days but weeks. I am visiting Tilburg University and Lecture in the Master of International Management, as I also did last year. It is a very enjoyable environment with bright students, nice colleagues and good infrastructure. It is an amazing late summer this year, while in the same period of 2015 I was taking pictures of a commencing autumn here. Most of Northern Europe is experiencing record temperatures these days. And of course many people see this with pleasure and concern at the same time. 

I am also looking a bit deeper into the economic development of Tilburg, including the recovery from the time after the decline of the textile and leather industry. One of the newest achievement is that Tesla has opened an assembly plant, in the commercial zone. The city revived after depression with services, logistics, food and beverage production. It is experimenting with "unconditional minimum income" for every citizen, no ties attached. And it turned itself, not into an architectural beauty, but a modern and clean habitat, which in many ways appears like it could serve as a model for others and future cities. This fits into a research topic I am going to deepen in 2017 with some projects.

Tesla at Tilburg. After a great test drive of the Model S (photo snapped by Jeroen Kuilman).

Malaria tropica

The most likely infection period for a malaria was before August 15th, while staying in Homabay and at Lake Victoria. On August 25th, I developed a high fever and was advised to approach The Centre of Inner Medicine, Department for Infections, HIV and Tropical Medicine of the Clinic of The Johann-Wolfsgang Goethe Universität in Frankfurt Main (Building 68, 1st floor for reception). The quick test immediately showed a positive result for malaria and the microscopy diagnosed a malaria tropica with a 0.6 % density of Plasmodium falciparum. From there is was only a short way, one floor down, where I spent 5 days in stationary treatment. I am not aware, I had more than three mosquito bites during the potential infection period, as I was extremely careful, using net and extra strong repellent at all time. And all of these three were during daytime (when the anopheles is not active). But I must have missed at least one. 

Treatment was with Riamet at 0, 8, 24, 36, 48 and 60 hours. Additionally, because the white blood cells shot up and there was a secondary infection suspected, I received 5 days of IV antibiotics. Malaria of this kind in a very draining experience. But I was surprised, how fast the symptoms faded and also the plasmodium count dropped. Be prepared for hot and cold sweat, fever way above 40 Celsius, attacks of trembling and hallucinations. To make it short: it's like in the movies. 

Well, I learned that in high risk regions it is better to take the malaria prophylaxis (even der side effects are strong). As my friend Erick said on the evening arriving in Kisumu: "Here you are just one bite away from a malaria". He was right.

Plasmodium falciparum (Copyright under Wikipedia Commons license).