The malaria of Dennis Kimetto was treated at the beginning of the symptoms, that's the reason because after 6 weeks he was able to run so fast.
Don't look at the "official" words of Kenyan when they speak about malaria. They call "malaria" every sickness affecting the respiratory system (cough and flu, for example), and in these cases they take some tablets and everything become good in short time.
When Kenyan have some small problem, normally go immediately to the hospital. They do a blood test, and the protocol for blood tests in Kenya is very different from what we use in Europe (and arguably in US). For example, if I want to know the level of Iron an athlete has, I have to go to one hospital only in Eldoret, and till 4-5 years ago only in Nairobi they could control this data (for not speaking about Transferrin and Ferritin, practically not detectable in any hospital in Rift Valley). On the other side, in the protocol there are, as MUST, test for malaria and typhus. We can say the most part of people in Rift Valley have, in their blood, "traces" of malaria and typhus, also if they never had a "total" malaria in their life, because their immunity system won the battle against mosquitos (but the "trace" remains in the body). Same situation when they have some stomach pain : going to the hospital for some investigation, people comes out with a diagnosis of "typhus", treated with generic antibiotics (large spectrum), when instead there are other specific reasons (for example, helycobacters) that needed to be treated with specific antibiotics.
I can clearly tell you that NEVER it's possible to compete 6 weeks after a real malaria. You can remember the long period out of competitions of Wilson Kipketer when he had malaria, and I remember the study I had in 2001 with Kemei when he came Italy 3 months after a real malaria, and was not able to run one km with amateurs. When I went to test him in the lab of Turin University, he had Hb of 8.6 and Hct of 25.8 (and this was already 3 months after the beginning of the sickness). In that situation, I had the opportunity to have one test every two weeks for understanding the evolution of the body looking at a good efficiency, and only after other 4 months he reached normal values (13.2 Hb and 38.8 Hct), finally starting effective training again.
I don't dubt that in US and Europe EPO is not prt of the treatment for malaria, but in Africa (nt only Kenya, but Uganda too) is normal approach to give EPO from the beginning, in order to increase the production of RBC, that are destroyed by the advancement of the sickness.
All the pharmacs you named in your posts are used for fighting MALARIA, with the goal to stop the action of the virus. EPO, instead, is used for limiting the EFFECTS already provoked, making the body more strong in order to recover from the sickness.
Rjm, you are well acculturized person, but you do a mistake : to think your basic knowledge is the same for African doctors, and to think the basic situation you live is the same in Kenya and Ethiopia.
In Kenya, the quantity of medicines is not enough for supporting all people, so when you go in a pharmacy they never sell you all the package, but give you a limited number of tablets only, according to the doctor's prescription. The quality is very poor : the most part of medicine comes from India, China and other Asian Countries, nobody is able to understand what is written on the containers (the most part of doped Kenyan, having traces of steroids, are positive for this kind of pharmacs without any clear info about the substances included in the medicine), and more than 50% of pharmacs are already expired.
Athlete of medium level for Kenya, but high level in the World (for example, 61:00 or 2:08 if men, 70:00 or 2:29 if women), don't consider themselves as professional, but as normal persons going to a normal doctor when have some health problem, and of sure don't ask if a medicine used with all the people includes some banned substance or not (and, also if they ask, 95% of pharmacists are not able to answer). Besides, there is the big risk of "traditional medicines", made with herbs and leaves which nobody tested, and that sometimes can include some not allowed "principle".
Coming to other posts, I can say that EPO can work with everybody if we want to reach a level of Aerobic Power that we can quantify in about 90% of the best of the athlete. In other words, giving an example :
An athlete, able running 10 km in 27' with full training (not less than 6-8 months of continuity, and 3 months of high specific quality), has to quit training for a period of 6-8 months for some reason (injury, sickness or simply because decides to stop his activity, and after that period wants to start again). If he uses to train completely clean, we can suppose that, after 4 months, he can run in 28' and in 13'30". Instead, if he uses EPO, he can reach the same performance in less than 3 months.
All the further training, of more "specific" character, has the goal to EXTEND the Aerobic Power (his 13'30") for reaching 27' again, and this part of training can't have any advantage by the use of EPO, that can't replace the physiological effects of training.
Put in your mind that the final effects of TRAINING (of course, specific at top level for volume and intensity) are not only the increase of transportation of Oxygen. For example, with long period at max level of hard and smart training, athletes in altitude can produce between 20% and 25% of more blood, increasing the total volume of blood in their body (something not possible taking EPO). For example, "responders" to altitude training can increase the affinity between Hb and O2, increasing the quantity of O2 they have at disposal, while "not responders" can't have the same result, and EPO cant replace this lack of specific ability.
So, while for athletes who don't have the qualities for becoming the best in the world EPO can work, for the top can only provoke problems, inhibiting some effect of training. And, in the final balance between advantages and disadvantages, taking EPO gives the priority to the disadvantages.
At the end, when we seak with the top Kenyans and Ethiopians, my position is that not only EPO doesn't give any advantage, but can be a limiting factor for the top performance. If a Marathon runnerruns 2:05 with EPO, probably can run under 2:04 looking at training only, of course if the training is proper, hard and smart.