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Comment by ajoy | Hacker News Reader

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.

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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.

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