doxycycline

cyberhippie

Shanti Methinks your getting your Malarone and your mefloquine (AKA larium) mixed up!

Malarone is a combination of atovaquone and proguanil hydrochloride and to my knowledge doesn't have the same side effect associated with Larium (mefloquine)
Malarone it seems is fairly safe and offers good protection, although it's a little sore on the pocket!!!

Doxy or the chloroquine/proguanil combination is all that's required for India though, unless visiting the North Eastern States.

As for homeopathic remedies well the Royal Homeopathic Hospital in Londaon has been quoted as saying there is NO homeopathic cure for malaria which rather brings into question whether a preventative would work!! IMHO

wizemen2

I hope you all are aware that it is recommended that you do NOT take Doxy for more than 2 months in one period.
It IS an "antibiotic" and the world is suffering from overuse of antibiotic,s causing a emense problem worldwide of bugs becoming immune to most antibiotics.
Hence I shunned my doctors prescription to take Doxy with me for my india trip,, and chose another doctors reccomendation suitable for India , for both "paludrine" and the usual "chloroquine",
rather than build up a anti biotic resistance that I may need one day for a more deadly illness.

Tomi

Hi sandyandjim,

Are you sure that is the UK advised thing? Where did you find that info? I always assumed the English rec was PROGUANIL/ATOVAQUONE (i.e. MALARONE), not PROGUANIL/CHLOROQUINE.

The US official site does not include the option you mention for India.
Look in Centers for Disease Control
Check the spelling of your drugs so you can look them up in your official travel health site: PROGUANIL and CHLOROQUINE.

Asking your personal doctor is NOT the way to go. They know very little about the specifics of travel health. I just had an appointment with a very good nurse practitioner, extremely competent in many other areas, and she offered LARIAM (note spelling, aka MEFLOQUINE) until I pointed out that it was not recommended for the Thailand-Cambodia border, where I had already told her I would be going. She had the info right in front of her, then read it and went "oops" and agreed with me.

I'm not pushing the US site; I also use the Canadian and the Australian sites, and am just not familiar with the UK one; just make sure you have properly looked it up. You're definitely not paranoid ... the mossies are out to get you!!

sezegnin

Does anyone know if these antimalarial prophylactics are also effective against dengue fever?

I was in India earlier this month and tried to avoid being bitten as much as possible, but the rotters still got a few bites in.

cyberhippie

Some say this I know but I don't think this is true!! Many people use doxy long term (read years) to control acne and have no problem with the antibiotic!!.
As for overuse of antibiotics worldwide, I hear you but this one has been around a long time and has probably already seen usage overexposure!!

cyberhippie

Hi Tomi you won't find the PROGUANIL/CHLOROQUINE choice on the CDC site, as it isn't sanctioned by the FDA. Many other national health bodies do recognise it though, including the WHO.
And is the preferred choice in a lot of Europe and Australia!!

GoanCanuck

Doctors in Canada do not like to prescribe this combination.

cyberhippie

In a word NO!!!

cyberhippie

I know there are different opinions on this canuck, I was simply explaining that the CDC site which is American won't post this conflicting info because it resides under FDA guidelines,
who have never licensed the drug proguanil, so the combination would be impossible to prescribe as proguanil isn't licensed for use on its own, Strange really as proguanil is part of combination present in Malarone tablets!!

As for who is right well I like to think that health bodies in Europe and the World Health Organization have also done their sums and don't deliberately set out to place their populations in danger!

I think the argument stems from views on the failure rates, some think it's within acceptable limits others don't, hence the conflict in opinions!!

Tomi

Thanks, Cyber, for answering my question.

I couldn't navigate the UK Department of Health site, and gave up after I saw several "consult your doctor" statements, which I find inadmissible and irresponsible CYA. Where can doctors go for information then? If anyone finds the info there, please post the URL, so I can bookmark it.

But the World Health Organization has a very comprehensive site, and it in fact approves proguanil/chloroquine for India. Not that I disbelieved you, Cyber, but I always check things for myself, following my own advice, and I didn't want to leave the impression that I disagreed with you.

For some reason, the WHO puts Assam in a separate category, and advises doxy, lariam, or malarone only.

The full PDF in the WHO, with a list of countries, can be found at:

World health Organization

Sama

I had no side effects whatsoever with Malarone in September. Malarone and Larium are two entirely different malaria meds.

as I've said on other threads re this subject, before I went to India I went back and forth A LOT on whether to take malaria meds or not. I chose Malarone because one of my doctors -- who is Indian, from Bangalore, and goes to India every year -- told me that in her 20 years of practice, she has never seen a side effect from malaria meds, other than people having wacky dreams sometimes from Larium. I did not choose doxy because you have to continue it for a month after you get back home to achieve its full "protection", and I did not want to be on a 2 month regimen of antibiotic.

Yes, malarone is very expensive, but fortunately, I only had to pay my insurance company's co-pay at the pharmacy.

I and the other yoga students got bit up A LOT in Chennai, and I am totally glad I decided to take malaria meds. Neither DEET nor "organic" repellants helped to deter these suckers, and I even got bit through my salwars. I can tell you that the students who did not take malaria meds were rather worried about getting malaria since the repellants were not helping. Even if you take malaria meds it is still possible to contract malaria, but I'm still glad I took malarone, at least for some peace of mind.

__________________
My India, 2005-2008
sama: Pali/Sanskrit: that state of consciousness which reflects neither attachment nor aversion

pezworld

This makes me curious. I've had no side effects from either time I've taken Lariam, but apparently others have. Has anyone else here taken it, and what side effects have you had, if any?

I'm going to take it again, just because I'm OK with it and don't want to deal with the other effects of the doxy.

camelgirl

Took Larium, no side effects. Husband had some vivid dreams, but no big deal. Also took Malarone on most recent trip, no problem but expensive.

cyberhippie

Paludrine and chloroquine is adequate and cheap, especially so as you can get the chloroquine tabs in India!
No bad dreams with these and limited side effects for the few!!

mikewill

Here's a link to the Travelpharm website http://www.travelpharm.com/index.cfm...a/Home.Welcome
- it contains some useful factual info, though of course you can always find something alarming about any drug on the internet!