Is a runny nose a symptom of malaria?

So I came down with my first Ghanaian cold on Monday. The day was hot, and I spent most of it outside in the hot sun while my mechanic replaced the front brakes on my car. There was no sitting under a tree this time. But at least my brakes are finally fixed! Anyhow, after spending all day out in the sun, I had a mild headache so I went home to rest. Couple being out in the sun with my newly shaved head, and I figured I was just suffering from too much sun exposure.

Tuesday I spent the day at home with a runny nose and the sneezes. Wednesday was more of the same. I spent all day in the archives sneezing about every 10 minutes. I think the rest of the students were glad when I left after lunch. I also had a mild case of nasal congestion and a very mild headache that would come and go every few hours. Thursday I started to feel better, no more sneezing, headache, or runny nose.

Not sure how I contracted a cold in 90+ degree weather, but I quickly learned how ailments effect your mentality differently in Africa than they do in the US. At every step of the way, my one thought was, "I hope I don't have malaria!" I even asked other people if runny noses and sneezing were symptoms of malaria, to which they all said no, and that allowed me to tell myself that I wasn't violently ill.

But I was amazed at how differently I thought about sickness, just because I happened to catch a minor cold in Ghana. The reality is that I was probably just suffering nasal irritation from the increased dust in the air caused by the Harmattan winds blowing south off the Sahara desert. And in the end, the cold was nothing. But I must confess that the thoughts of malaria, etc... were never far from my mind throughout the last few days, no matter how much mental reinforcement I used. I battled with myself over whether I should seek a medical professional, how long I should wait to do that, etc... scenarios which would play out quite differently in a first-world country, no matter what the severity of the illness. I guess that's one of the key differences about living in Africa.

At least it's comforting to know that antibiotics are readily available here if I do come down with malaria. And I hear it's actually much better to get it here than in the US, since its prevalence makes it easy to diagnose and treat.