I had Malaria in Douala, and the Cameroonians know how to treat it. The hospital I was in was clean and well staffed. I was out in 3 days, and hungry again.
I will never be treated for Malaria in any western country if I ever get it again. I was in Canada and started to feel the symptoms, and I went to the clinic to get treated, and to get the anti malaria drugs. They told me it would be 3 or 4 days before they got the results back, which I then told them I would be dead if I had malaria. They said it would not be that bad. They had no clue. I jumped on the next plane back to africa, and picked up some co-arinate (Coartem works too) at the first pharmacy I came to, and 2 days laterwas feeling much better.
As to what kind of anti Malaria drugs you should take? Malarone is probably the best now. It is expensive, but has the fewest side effects, and they claim is the easiest on your body. Larium or doxycyclene can cause hallucinations. They both have limitations on how long you can take them, as they are hard on your liver.
If you do start to feel like you have a flu, go get checked immediately. The symtoms I have had were aches and pains in the low back, head ache, and no appetite. This lasted for a day, then was followed by fever, and chills, more aches and pains for another day, then by the third day, I was expelling fluids from all orifaces. Then I was checked into a hospital.
If you get to the diarrea and vomiting stage, then the over the counter drugs will not do much for you, and you need to be in the hospital. Up to that stage, you can take on of several drugs to eliminate the malaria. I recomend you always have one of those packages on hand when you are in a malaria country, and keep it with you for atleast 2 weeks after you leave the malaria zone, as the parasite can incubate for 7-14 days before you have any symptoms.You should also get a self test kit, as you can test yourself for malaria with just a little prick to the finger, and the test will give you an indication on if you have malaria. I always have one kit on hand, and also a package of malarone and co-arinate. You can take malarone in higher dose to control the symtoms, as it prevents the parasite from multiplying.
There is also cerebral malaria, and this may kill in 24 hrs. The patient is often found in convultions before they get treatment. This is however a rare form of malaria.