malaria tablets?

[lolmerry]

Hi, Doing a asia cruise in jan,A couple of places (Cambodia and Vietnam )my doctor as suggested malaria tabs all our vaccinations are up to date,

What are your personal opinions on this? would welcome any feedback on this topic,I have taken anti malaria tabs before and there are side affects which upset me last time but if its ness i would rather be on the safe side,

Anyone else in this situation/?

[Denverite]

Hi, Doing a asia cruise in jan,A couple of places (Cambodia and Vietnam )my doctor as suggested malaria tabs all our vaccinations are up to date,

What are your personal opinions on this? would welcome any feedback on this topic,I have taken anti malaria tabs before and there are side affects which upset me last time but if its ness i would rather be on the safe side,

Anyone else in this situation/?

 

I think it depends upon where you are going in Cambodia and Vietnam. For example, we visited Saigon and did not take malaria tablets. However, on another cruise, we were visiting Siem Reap in Cambodia and our doctor recommended malaria tablets. He said--'Would you rather take the chance that you could get malaria and have all the problems associated with that, or take a few pills.' We opted to take the malaria pills and had no side affects.

[eh2zed]

In addition to this Board, if you haven't already done so post it on the Ports of Call - Asia board. Everyone hanging out there have gone or planning to go there.

[jakkojakko]

Malaria pills are not a profylaxe. They will not prevent you from getting malaria. What they do is to minimise the effect when you get malaria, ie you don't get as sick as you normally would. This can be dangerous in itself, since it then looks and feels like a flu and you won't get treated in a way you should.

 

The best thing you can do is prevention:

Wear long sleeves (shirts and pants) and use anti-mosquito ointment on ALL exposed bodyparts. Especially during sunrise and sundown. You cannot contract malaria if you are not bitten by a certain kind of mosquito.

 

If you get a fever when in malaria country, do a malaria bloodtest.

[Randyk47]

Hi, Doing a asia cruise in jan,A couple of places (Cambodia and Vietnam )my doctor as suggested malaria tabs all our vaccinations are up to date,

What are your personal opinions on this? would welcome any feedback on this topic,I have taken anti malaria tabs before and there are side affects which upset me last time but if its ness i would rather be on the safe side,

Anyone else in this situation/?

 

Malaria pills are not a profylaxe. They will not prevent you from getting malaria. What they do is to minimise the effect when you get malaria, ie you don't get as sick as you normally would. This can be dangerous in itself, since it then looks and feels like a flu and you won't get treated in a way you should.

 

The best thing you can do is prevention:

Wear long sleeves (shirts and pants) and use anti-mosquito ointment on ALL exposed bodyparts. Especially during sunrise and sundown. You cannot contract malaria if you are not bitten by a certain kind of mosquito.

 

If you get a fever when in malaria country, do a malaria bloodtest.

 

Jakkojakko is absolutely right. At this point in time there is no malaria vaccination or preventive medication. The pills are only useful if and when you contract malaria which obviously you hopefully won't.

[Bearnaise]

Jakkojakko is absolutely right. At this point in time there is no malaria vaccination or preventive medication. The pills are only useful if and when you contract malaria which obviously you hopefully won't.

Absolutely wrong. There certainly is preventive medication. It's just not 100% effective so it's strongly advised to follow other methods to avoid mosquito bites as well.

 

The medication basically works as a poison that kills the malaria parasites so they can't take up residence in a human host. Malarone (atovaquone-proguanil) is effective in areas where there is resistance to other drugs and it has few side effects if any for most people. However, it is expensive, especially since it must be taken daily beginning 1-2 days before travel through 7 days after leaving the malarial area.

 

Consult a travel physician for the best advice. Also, the CDC site is very informative:

 

http://www.cdc.gov/malaria/

[pspercy]

Also note that the drug of choice depends where you're going to be as the mosquitos have developed tolerance. Most of the anti-malarial pills are pretty mild altho' Lariam severely affects some people. At a former job an employee's wife (stationed in west Africa) quit taking it because of side effects. Net result was she caught malaria and she died while being evacuated to Europe. So take it seriously, it's amazing that so many people are so casual about it sometimes yet it still kills millions every year.

[lolmerry]

thanks for all your advise,i will probably take the medication to be on the safe side thanks

[Hawaiidan]

Yes the pills are considered to greatly reduce the possibility of Malaria.

Yes the are considered very but not 100% effective... nothing is 100% except death and taxes.

Denge fever is also a considertion too...

 

Remember, that whatever the side effects of taking a specific medication are they are always... better than getting the disease its self......

Take you doctors advice... not the internet

[Grandma Gilly]

We have recently returned from that part of the world, Vietnam, Cambodia and Thailand. Our doctor advised that unless we were travelling 'in the jungle', away from tourist spots like Siem Reap, Saigon and Hanoi, that it was not necessary to take anti-malarials as these are low risk areas. However, we used very strong insect repellents all the time.

[Raring to go]

We have taken Malerone on trips to China, India and Africa, because the CDC reccommended it. I have trouble tolerating a lot of meds, but malerone was not a problem.

[JB&JLG74]

We, too, have taken Malarone without side effects during a couple of safaris in Africa. Some people in our group had weekly pills and they did have trouble tolerating those.