Fever, headache, chills and sweats; the tropics come with beautiful beaches and equally impressive diseases. Whether it is the runbele (travelers diarrhea) you get after drinking contaminated water, or plain old malaria from infected mosquitoes, it is always good to know what to do when you or your travel companions fall ill.

Get the diagnosis

Fever is always a sign of something more serious happening in the body, so make sure that the moment temperatures rise you seek medical help. You can either go straight to the hospital (recommended) or go to a pharmacy that can run the Rapid Malaria Test for you to tell whether the fever is caused by Malaria or not. It is cheap (2$) and gives you result in less than five minutes, but should only be used if you do not have instant access to a hospital or happen to be near the pharmacy (see addresses at bottom of article).

There are a few hospitals in Freetown but a few recommended include Connaught, Aspen Medical and Choithram.

Whichever of the three you choose you must always bring cash along. Choithram does not provide you with test results if you do not pay a 30$ fee and admission requires a deposit of about 100$.

Aspen Medical is perhaps the most internationally oriented. When dealing with more serious illnesses the staff feel they cannot treat locally they evacuate you to one of the nearest hospitals abroad. Aspen will prepare the patients for travel and for admission in foreign hospitals. You need a membership plan or private medical insurance from approved suppliers in order to benefit from their facilities. Among a variety of plan options, there is a 30-day membership plan for which could be ideal for short term visitors to Sierra Leone. However, they do treat tourists if they can pay cash.

Connaught Hospital is the Sierra Leone’s main hospital. The doctors are excellent, but the waiting list long and there are too many patients per doctor.

Contact details of hospitals

Choithram Hospital – Hill Station, opposite of Old School junction), Freetown
+23276980000

Aspen Medical – Mudge Farm, Off Aberdeen Road
+23299500800

Connaught Hospital – Lightfoot Boston street/ Percival street, Freetown

You can do a malaria rapid test at the ‘Lumley Pharmacy’ opposite of Lumley market.