After a lovely weekend away (girls only) our youngest was obviously not feeling very well and had a terrible nights sleep so I took her temp and realised that we would have to go for a malaria test. Although we take weekly anti-malarials we always go for a test if anyone has a fever. The one yesterday was the fifth since Christmas so I should be used to them but usually the doc takes responsibility for taking the kids for the test and I go along to dole out raisins and cuddles. The doc was on his way back from (a boys) weekend climbing big mountains so I was on my own. The queue seemed unusually long and all the children waiting looked really ill, the cries of them and the children on the wards are heartbreaking and I found I wanted to cry, there were just so many of them and so few staff. We all pay for the test, an amount that for us is small but I imagine that if we earned less we might not have the tests done so quickly or often which means that the children are often very ill when they arrive at the hospital. Malaria is a big problem in children, most adults living in a malarial area have some immunity to the disease as they have probably contracted it and survived.
Our youngest is fine, the test was negative and she is bouncing around this morning.
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