Malaria pills or not?

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• Oct 23, 2011

• #1

In february I'm heading for North-Sulawesi and have been searching on the internet whether I need to take malaria pills or not. I still can't make up my mind, because I find contradicting answers all the time.

What is your opinion?

 

herman

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• Oct 23, 2011

• #2

They are recommended for a place I travel at times, I take them. Unless you have some bad reaction to the drugs, in my opinion you are better safe than sorry. According to doctor friend of mine your really really do not want malaria.

 

Searcaigh

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• Oct 23, 2011

• #3

Personally I never take them, I just take precautions in being bitten, Dengue is more of a risk than Malaria IMHO

 

OP

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• Oct 23, 2011

• #4

I read sometimes that the side-effects can be bigger then the risk of not taking them.

 

eternaljonah

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• Oct 23, 2011

• #5

i have a friend who is a doctor and before my trip in africa a few years back she gave me this advice, DO NOT take the malaria pills for if you do get malaria it will be harder to get cured since the cure is the same as the prevention, also the pills do not guarantee that you won't get it. malaria is curable quite easily if caught in the very very begining.... just be aware of mosquitos, wear long pants and long sleeved shirts..

 

kombiguy

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• Oct 23, 2011

• #6

I've had malaria, and it sucks. Luckily it wasn't brain malaria, which is highly fatal. There are multiple drugs available to prevent malaria. Atabrine, chloroquinine, doxycline. Something is available that will work for you without side effects. Get it, take it, and sleep comfortably knowing you're protected. Or, catch malaria, spend two weeks in the hospital vomiting and crapping until you'd almost rather die, and then two weeks getting your strength back. Oh, and by the way, malaria can then re-occur occasionally, although with lessening severity.
Take the pills. Malaria really sucks!

 

jefffalcone

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• Oct 23, 2011

• #7

Find out from someone who has been there recently if they even have misquitoes to worry about. A lot of places with misquito born illness spray for them and there are really very few to even worry about. I took malaria pills when I went to the phillipines. After my first three days I hadn't seen a single misquito so I stopped taking them. Didnt see a single misquito in the phillipines for a week and then in a week in thailand.

 

pjhansman

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• Oct 23, 2011

• #8

Not to cast aspersions on the free "medical advice" you will receive on Scubaboard, I would suggest you might refer to the World Health Organization's website for information.

But having said that, I of course have my own thoughts on the matter.

I suffer from the side effects of the anti-malaria drugs, so unless I'm headed to a malaria "hot spot" I avoid them.

 

OP

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• Oct 23, 2011

• #9

yes - no 2-4 ?

 

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• Oct 23, 2011

• #10

When I was a young pup I worked with a lot of guys who had come back from the Pacific after WWII who still had malaria. It stayed with them all their remaining lives. They were all total wrecks. I've lived in Honduras where malaria and dengue fever are prevalent. Though there are meds for both, primarily available to the rich, it seems like most of the common people I dealt with had a history of recurrences on a steady basis. I made up my mind a long time ago that if I traveled anywhere south of the Rio Grande or anywhere in Africa or the Middle East it would be to my best interest to take the pills. You really don't want to get it. Believe me.