how neccessary are malaria tablets?

phobal

A lot of people in Africa don't use condoms when they have sex to prevent the spread of AIDS and related STDs. So, you could take your chances, too.

SydneyKate

Take the medicine. If you knew someone who has had malaria you would say "thank God we now have drugs that can prevent it". My Dad had malaria and it took DECADES to get over it. Don't be an idiot.

cyberhippie

Nick I believe Neem Tulsi oil works quite well in repelling the little buggers I was told this by a friend but as yet I haven't put it to the test. And I won't get a chance now as I'm heading to the mountains where there aren't too many mozzies!
So try it out if your looking for something natural to repel mozzies. A word of warning though, it smells gross!! My friend mixed it with some lavender essential oil (which is also a repellant by the way!! Which improved the smell.
If you get round to trying it let me know as would prefer not to be smearing myself with some toxin that surely isn't good in the long run!!

Nick-H

Enjoy those mossie-free mountains!

I wonder if munching a few neem flowers will make me smell bad to a mossie. I might try that as I don't have to go far to find them!

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cyberhippie

Ah so thats what the guy in Monsoon wedding was eating............. Ha it's all getting clearer now!!
Enjoy them flowers, you know me, flower power rules!!

Sunray

I have made this point before but if you want to repell mosquitos from your room, buy the plug in repellants you can get from the shops. These have been so effective its untrue. They make all the insects go totally bonkers. I had the cockroach trying repeatedly to go down a hole that was way too small for it. I also found two mosquitos upside down on my bed. I thought they were dead when I put my hand down to steady myself to pick them up, much to my suprise they flew off, somewhat irratically. They kepts bumping into the walls and things, including me! They were, err 'resting' upside down on my bed it seems.

Not been bitten in my room with this switched on yet. Cheap at about 100rs for the repellent and the electrical heater device. If anyone wants to know the brand, say on here and I'll look, can't remember now. Its calls its self the #1 repellent if that helps.

wireless_drums

laughing at your whole message, find me one quick!!

I have a box of larium which i managed to carry half way round the world for a year and never took and was wondering if i'll be requiring them this time round? seems larium is not a fravorite for sure, im pretty psycho anyway and i dont fancy talking to furnature.. any hints?

All this talk of taking tablets and tripped out mosquitos makes me wonder. what about nets? i have a stash of nets - am i likely to need one?? shout back quick cos im off soon.. )
thanks P.

grikoo

Doesn't hurt to have one with you if you have the space.

Though you may have to get inventive with how to hang them as many hotels lack a simple hook above the bed.

wireless_drums

Sure, sticking it in my rucksack is no hassle i guess. i think i came across a thread about the usefulness of blutack in India. perhaps they have something to say on the matter of hanging nets. ha!

edwardseco

A little bit of twisted cord and you can always manage..

kalbarri

i also recommend the electrical plug in mozzy detractor.i used them in sri lanka. turn on before sunset, after closing all the windows and doors.
i spent 2 years around india with no protection for malaria, in the 70s and got bitten within the last 2 weeks in delhi. i always joked that it was indias farewell gift. luckily it was a type of malaria that i was able to get rid of but i still ended up skin and bone and unable to eat for a month.

rhill1

mossies???? are they a problem throughout the day or is it just at night?? Will malaria tablets do the trick 100% Thank you!

machadinha

Please, don't tell me this is the first time you thought of it... (And btw, I thought you had long landed in India by now? May be confused with another poster though.)

Malaria prophylaxes don't offer 100% protection from the disease no, and they won't protect you at all from getting bitten, so you should still try to prevent this no matter whether you take anti-malarials or not. What they do is offer a degree of protection, then should you contract the disease after all, the symptoms and general development will be less drastic, buying you time to seek proper treatment, as you certainly should. They may or may not make such subsequent treatment easier, I'm not sure of this. (I think the treatment essentially consists of higher doses of the same, or rather different kinds of, anti-malarials, again, I'm not sure.)

The malaria-carrying mosquitoes (of the Anopheles genus) are said to be active from dusk till dawn, notably around dusk I believe (people report on this differently, also depending on how attractive they are to mosquitoes to begin with one presumes. Some get eaten alive, others are barely bothered by them.) (... Reading up a little on this, it seems some of the species concerned are said to be most active around dusk and dawn as such, whereas others are said to be nocturnal = active all night.)

However, dengue for instance (a serious disease with so far no real prevention or treatment I believe) is carried by different species of mosquitoes that are active by day. So one can't rely on protection at night only.

Most of this stuff should be summarized in any decent travel guidebook's health section, or so one should hope. Information should also be widely available on the web, or on this site even, with plenty of spurious stuff to go with it.

Oh ps just a note that this thread until post #52 dated to spring 2005.

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Sharrystar

Can anyone help me to find the cheapest Malarone tablets around at the moment? Paid £2.10 per tablet last winter, with free p&p but this time the cheapest seems to be £2.25. Has anyone found cheaper. This is for me and my husband and we need 37 each. Thanks

grikoo

It's always treated with a different chemical than what you're using for prophylaxis. Using the same drug in higher doses would tend to make resistence more likely.

Sharrystar- 2.25 is fairly cheap. Not sure you'll find anything cheaper. The cheapest I've seen with canadian pharmacies was about 2.00, and that was for a fairly large quantity.