Malaria tablet advice please
- Thread starter Onket
- Start date
I've been working in south India for about 8 years. I've never bothered with AMs and never had a problem. Like Fela says, the locals don't take them!
Take care not to get bitten in the first place - use a good DEET-based repellent and mozzie coils / nets where you sleep. The time to be especially vigilant is "mosquito hour" just after sunset.
Having said this, I guess it depends to where you're going and for how long. The last time I took AMs was on a 2-week trip to Gambia, which is particularly bad for malaria. That was the weekly chloroquine / daily paludrine combination, which was mostly OK. Any bad side-effects can easily be overcome by copious amounts of alcohol.
The AMs did make my g/f very ill though - never take these on an empty stomach!
Take care not to get bitten in the first place - use a good DEET-based repellent and mozzie coils / nets where you sleep. The time to be especially vigilant is "mosquito hour" just after sunset.
Having said this, I guess it depends to where you're going and for how long. The last time I took AMs was on a 2-week trip to Gambia, which is particularly bad for malaria. That was the weekly chloroquine / daily paludrine combination, which was mostly OK. Any bad side-effects can easily be overcome by copious amounts of alcohol.
The AMs did make my g/f very ill though - never take these on an empty stomach!
I apologise for the tone in my post. I've been reading these threads ever since i came to urban. I do recall myself getting the two sorts of tablets when i first came here, the daily one and the weekly one. After one day i just thought no. No thank you.
I just think that we're so cosseted by the need for safety and security in our developed havens of this planet, and that getting out there with the less security-mindedness we can, the more we enjoy the travel experience. Feel alive, enjoy the new consciousness, don't dull it with western pills!
Sorry onket!
Onket
Je suis [CONTENT REMOVED]
Yeah, peace man, etc.
I'm taking the drugs in the hope that I will have less of a chance of getting ill. And as a result of being offered 2 different types of tablets I was asking which type would be preferrable based on people's experiences.
Thanks for your opinion- I will still be taking the tablets.
I'm taking the drugs in the hope that I will have less of a chance of getting ill. And as a result of being offered 2 different types of tablets I was asking which type would be preferrable based on people's experiences.
Thanks for your opinion- I will still be taking the tablets.
This is the key. Perhaps we should have a malaria stick thread! When i'm on the islands here, my routine begins about 5pm, an hour before sundown. Shower, repellant on ankles, wrists, elbows, locally made trousers, and that's my evening sorted. Then before bed a coil burning outside the bungalow, and either inside a mozzie net, or a fan trained on my bed. They can't deal with the airflow.
Prevention like this is so much better for one than swallowing those horrible pills.
Incidentally, my girlfriend buys some kind of herbal repellant (and itch reliever) that has no deet in it. And it's very effective. Can't remember what it's called, but it's all herbs.
Yeah, peace man, etc.
I'm taking the drugs in the hope that I will have less of a chance of getting ill. And as a result of being offered 2 different types of tablets I was asking which type would be preferrable based on people's experiences.
Thanks for your opinion- I will still be taking the tablets.
Well, i only hope you get no reaction to them!
It sounds like you've been given the same two types as i was. If i recall correctly i was told that one without the other was ineffective. I think that contributed to me giving up on them after one day.
Onket
Je suis [CONTENT REMOVED]
Well my nurse certainly said one OR the other, not both.
And I find it odd that you seem to think that just because I am taking the tablets I will rely fully on them & not take any further steps such as the prevention you describe.
I am going to be doing that anyway simply because I react very badly to bites even in my own country. The tablets are because I can't get Malaria here.
And I find it odd that you seem to think that just because I am taking the tablets I will rely fully on them & not take any further steps such as the prevention you describe.
I am going to be doing that anyway simply because I react very badly to bites even in my own country. The tablets are because I can't get Malaria here.
You may find it odd mate, but that was not my thinking anyway, so it needn't be odd. Everyone takes certain preventative measures, but one thing that is omnipresent is the huge amount of travellers/tourists who come to these parts and wear shorts in the evening. Just asking for it that is.
And you'll need to take prevention measures, coz like people say, the pills don't guarantee you avoiding malaria.
Riklet
procrastinación
A good site for checking the "strains" of Malaria you need to be guarded against is an American military website, if you can find that, give it a looksie. Good suggestions on it.
They all have problems. I did a fair bit of research after I was prescribed Larium, and whilst it's extremely convenient (take 1 tablet once a week...) it has a fair load of horror stories. I found the first time I took it, it made me feel really sick and ill and weird, plus it makes dreams very... I dunno. I would say "vivid" but it's more than vivid, it's like something changes, and you actually believe the dream until you wake up, whilst at the same time not remembering or understanding it. It's really not very nice, but I guess with the good dreams it was ok, and I got used to it.
I was prescribed Larium in Australia (before I left for Asia), to last me in Thailand, Cambodia and Nepal, and to be honest, I was mainly in more urban/populated areas cleansed of malaria generally, in SE Asia, and in Nepal once you get up into any sort of elevation the malaria risk is ziltch. I saw bugger all mossies in Nepal, and stopped taking them anyway (although I carried on for 2 weeks afterwards, incase it was in my body, and then said fuck it!)
As for deoxycycline, one of the main benefits is it's cheappppp, especially compared to some others. It does however need to be taken daily, it can affect dreams and make people feel ill etc etc.
There's malarone which my friend took, and is the one which can cause horrible ulcers, but that seems to be the worst side effects; generally there are way fewer problems than some of the others (it does have to be taken daily though), and various health organisations seem to be bigging it up at the moment. It's expensive too, which is another factor.
It does depend on where you're travelling to (Siem Reap, Phnom Penn, Hanoi etc, or tiny villages in Cambodia n north Thailand), and the risk you're prepared to take, to be honest. The season you're in a country can greatly affect the number of mossies, and thus your chance of getting nipped, which you want to avoid anyway! Get some good DEET and cover up etc etc. There are other tropical nasties aside from malaria worth worrying about, which i'm sure you're aware of
Out of the people I met in Cambodia, I would say a fair few (perhaps a majority?
) took the risk and didn't bother with anti-malarials. It's definitely a risk, however if you have good insurance, worst comes to the worst you'll be evacuated (if that's an option). The guy running the hotel/hostel I stayed at in Bangkok was very clued up about malarial risk, mossies and just general travel, and his view was (which he alleges is a view shared by many in the region) that taking no anti-malarials can make sense. he argued this because often the medication can give similar symptoms, and if it fails (which it can do), then you can mistake early on set of malaria for side-effects from the drugs. He got dengue fever in Cambodia, and was far more worried about things such as that than Malaria, seeing as he could have died... of course, anti malarials dont work against that anyway.
Mmm sorry for this ramble anyhoo! You are travelling to this region though.... and I presume you'll be going when it's moving out of the wet season. I think if I went back, I would consider not taking any anti-malarials in Cambodia/Thailand/Vietnam/Laos etc, unless I was in very affected areas for weeks at a time. Then again, i am young and foolish. I did meet a fair few people who'd been travelling around the region for years though, and had never had any malarial problems, then just made sure to minimise bites as much as possible, and if any potential symptoms were popping up, to get help ASAP.
Good luck.
They all have problems. I did a fair bit of research after I was prescribed Larium, and whilst it's extremely convenient (take 1 tablet once a week...) it has a fair load of horror stories. I found the first time I took it, it made me feel really sick and ill and weird, plus it makes dreams very... I dunno. I would say "vivid" but it's more than vivid, it's like something changes, and you actually believe the dream until you wake up, whilst at the same time not remembering or understanding it. It's really not very nice, but I guess with the good dreams it was ok, and I got used to it.
I was prescribed Larium in Australia (before I left for Asia), to last me in Thailand, Cambodia and Nepal, and to be honest, I was mainly in more urban/populated areas cleansed of malaria generally, in SE Asia, and in Nepal once you get up into any sort of elevation the malaria risk is ziltch. I saw bugger all mossies in Nepal, and stopped taking them anyway (although I carried on for 2 weeks afterwards, incase it was in my body, and then said fuck it!)
As for deoxycycline, one of the main benefits is it's cheappppp, especially compared to some others. It does however need to be taken daily, it can affect dreams and make people feel ill etc etc.
There's malarone which my friend took, and is the one which can cause horrible ulcers, but that seems to be the worst side effects; generally there are way fewer problems than some of the others (it does have to be taken daily though), and various health organisations seem to be bigging it up at the moment. It's expensive too, which is another factor.
It does depend on where you're travelling to (Siem Reap, Phnom Penn, Hanoi etc, or tiny villages in Cambodia n north Thailand), and the risk you're prepared to take, to be honest. The season you're in a country can greatly affect the number of mossies, and thus your chance of getting nipped, which you want to avoid anyway! Get some good DEET and cover up etc etc. There are other tropical nasties aside from malaria worth worrying about, which i'm sure you're aware of
Out of the people I met in Cambodia, I would say a fair few (perhaps a majority?
) took the risk and didn't bother with anti-malarials. It's definitely a risk, however if you have good insurance, worst comes to the worst you'll be evacuated (if that's an option). The guy running the hotel/hostel I stayed at in Bangkok was very clued up about malarial risk, mossies and just general travel, and his view was (which he alleges is a view shared by many in the region) that taking no anti-malarials can make sense. he argued this because often the medication can give similar symptoms, and if it fails (which it can do), then you can mistake early on set of malaria for side-effects from the drugs. He got dengue fever in Cambodia, and was far more worried about things such as that than Malaria, seeing as he could have died... of course, anti malarials dont work against that anyway.Mmm sorry for this ramble anyhoo! You are travelling to this region though.... and I presume you'll be going when it's moving out of the wet season. I think if I went back, I would consider not taking any anti-malarials in Cambodia/Thailand/Vietnam/Laos etc, unless I was in very affected areas for weeks at a time. Then again, i am young and foolish. I did meet a fair few people who'd been travelling around the region for years though, and had never had any malarial problems, then just made sure to minimise bites as much as possible, and if any potential symptoms were popping up, to get help ASAP.
Good luck.
