> Malaria seems like it has the capacity to really ruin someone's life.

I contracted a unknown variant of malaria when I was a kid. It really wasn't a pleasant experience. There's sickness; then on a completely different level there's malaria.

It won't ruin your life - if you survive you'll be left as healthy as you were before. However, that's IF you survive.

It can leave you slightly more stupid, though: http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal...., http://www.malariajournal.com/content/9/1/366, http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0167629612...

> It can leave you slightly more stupid, though

That explains a lot ;)

> as healthy as you were before.

Except that anytime you are otherwise sick or generally run down in the future it could return and make you very ill again (or kill you). I hope that this does not happen to you. Good luck!

While it's widely believed that once contracted you can't get rid of malaria, you actually can(though not in all cases, and it might be hard to prove you are malaria free).

http://www.cdc.gov/malaria/about/faqs.html#treatment

Good knowledge! I wouldn't bet my life on it though.

Do you reckon?

http://www.who.int/gho/malaria/epidemic/deaths/en/