Africa 2000 Network

Calcified cysts, the consequence of quinine injections into the gluteal muscles, are very common amongst Europeans and Indians who have been given quinine injections for malaria. It is worth remarking that I have never seen one of these cysts in an African, although I must have examined many hundreds of Africans who have had quinine injections. It is really remarkable that these “cyst-like shadows” are never seen in our Africans. Amongst them phleboliths are also rare, as I pointed out in the E.A. Medical Journal, and strangely, pulmonary embolus is practically unknown. Their pineals seldom calcify. Yet they can produce plenty of calcium for bone lesions.