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Comment by mmsimanga | Hacker News Reader

As a kid growing up in Malaria country I got yellow jaundice. Doctor told my dad that since I had had yellow jaundice I was "immune" to malaria. Its been 35 odd years since I have taken any malaria medication. Family members often get malaria once or so a year. A few years ago I decided to check to see if there were was any literature online with link between Malaria and jaundice. I couldn't find any papers online. Now I don't know whether what the doctor told my dad was true or there is something to be said about me having mentally told myself I am immune to malaria. To this day my dad maintains I cannot get malaria. The younger me believed him wholeheartedly, the older me would be grateful for some research papers on the topic.

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I am not sure this if of any use and I am nowhere near an expert on this field. But I found this article by doing a google search for "link malaria parasite hepatitis" : https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3097216/

Hepatitis is a major cause of jaundice (jaundice is a symptom after all, of the underlying disease).

So it could be that even if you are infected, the symptoms are less pronounced?

Again, I am not an expert. But don't give up hope in doing your own research. Sometimes you will see something that even "experts" miss.

Thank you for the link. I skimmed through it (not being a medical person myself). It is most definitely the closest formal confirmation of what I was told back then.

Unless you had newborn jaundice, which is unrelated to hepatitis and quite common.

I was probably between 5 and 7 years old. I remember because my village gang were fascinated with how yellow my urine was. It is the one time I can say I won the pissing contest :-).

That is awesome! Not to go too far off topic here but I sense that you must have an absolutely remarkable life story

Any chance you were screened for anemias? Carriers for sickle, thalassemia,and G6PD deficiency all have malaria protective effects and ties in nicely with yellow urine and jaundice. Hemolysis increases urobilin in urine leading to a more yellow color.

These are pretty common in african populations so I wouldn't be too surprised.

I don't recall ever being screened for any of the anemias. One of my late cousins was anemic. It was the cause of his death (couldn't get an ambulance and blood transfusion in time). If it is genetic perhaps there is a chance I am a carrier??? Anyway the yellow urine didn't last too long if my memory serves me well (week or two at most) and I have been relatively healthy since then (touch wood). As I result of having had yellow jaundice I was told I could never donate blood.

Probably an anemia then! Carriers still have protective effects without too much of the bad, there may have been some precipitating event during your episode.

Visited malaria country recently and was told by doctors that most people growing up there end up with constant low levels of the malaria parasite (like 1-2% of red blood cells maybe) that their bodies have just learned to live with. Not exactly immunity.

> ... their bodies have just learned to live with. Not exactly immunity

Doesn't exactly sound like lack of immunity either.

I mean, completely non immune people just die.

Agreed!

I do think there is some truth in immunity (I grew up in Limpopo province) but there is also very localised variation in spread of malaria. The area where I am from is in the malaria area, but few people get malaria. My grandmother had malaria six times, but ever since Dr Annecke's time the area has seen few cases of malaria and you are more likely to get it in Kruger or Vhembe. So it could be that your family members live right in the centres of some of the localised malaria areas.

I've never had malaria and the general approach is 1) if you think you may have malaria keep on testing until it's positive. This is very important as you'll get multiple false negatives. 2) Taking medication is counter productive if you live in these areas permanently or visit frequently as doctors in Limpopo are probably the most clued up on malaria of any place in the world, should you get infected. (Commercial pilots, on the other hand, take very expensive and effective anti-malaria preventative medication.)

This reminds me of an interesting story. The host of The Portal podcast, Eric Weinstein went on the Joe Rogan show where he shared a story: he used to get very easily sun burnt. No chance of getting a tan. He'd just burn. Then, one day he took LSD and then stopped burning. Crazy story. No follow up study =).

Sounds like Eric swapped consciousness with a parallel Eric that’s now very confused about his sunburn situation

Andy Weil has a very similar story about LSD curing his allergy to cats.

The Psychedelics Encylopedia (3rd Ed, Peter Stafford), P73 info on using LSD to cure various physical ailments. Too long to reproduce here, suggest you get the book, you won't regret it.

Anyway, also shows before & after photos of of treatment of sever psoriasis with LSD and ritalin(?!)

And the pix themselves https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=HwKsDQAAQBAJ&pg=PT141&lp...

sickle cell anemia can make you resistant to malaria and also cause jaundice.

Have you been tested for Gilbert's syndrome? They say it is a disease from natural selection from Malaria. All jaundice related conditions have a degree of protection against Malaria.

No never been tested for Gilbert's syndrome. I must confess I have never heard of it or anyone referring to it.

> All jaundice related conditions have a degree of protection against Malaria.

I guess this is the general advice I was given

Actual testing for Gilbert's isn't done all that often. It's usually diagnosed when otherwise healthy bloodwork shows elevated levels of unconjugated bilirubine. It's been shown to offer some protection against heart disease, and it can cause mild jaundice, and stools that are a bit more on the yellow side.

> Family members often get malaria once or so a year.

Wow they must be some tough people. That's no joke.

Malaria is such a big part of life there that you can literally get medication over the counter. Mosquito nets are everywhere, shops have sizeable sections of mosquito repellent, windows have shutters with mosquito nets on the outside. People are supposed to take the malaria preventative pill but sometimes stocks run out and sometimes people are just people and stop taking the pills. As soon as someone doesn't feel well malaria is usually one of the suspects. Sometimes people just take a fall course of malaria treatment without even going to see a doctor. Then life moves on. There are some deaths, hard to quantify but it is usually the deadlier form of malaria that affects the brain and the sick person takes too long to see a doctor.

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