Malaria Tablets BBC today

OutandAbout

Lot of airtime on TV today about Malaria. 20 year old boy working in Africa gave his away and died 48 hours after arriving home in UK. Be sensible and take the tabs

nadreg

Very interesting story. My friend's daughter, a young girl, suffered pretty severe side effects with the medication. She was a soft spoken, well behaved child, but while on the medication became hypersensitive and would go into hysterics over the slightest things. Apparently, it's a somewhat common side effect.

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dzibead

You have referred to "the medication" without specifying what medication you're talking about. There are a number of different drugs presecrbed prophylactically against malaria. The psychotropic side effects you are referring to were probably caused by Larium, which is the trade name for Mefloquine, and which is a somewhat controversial drug. Not all malaria drugs cause similar effects, so it would be wise to do some research before making sweeping generalizations about their effects. Also, different strains of malaria are endemic in different parts of the world, and some strains of malaria have become resistant to certain drugs, so one has to be sure to take the type of medication that remains effective against the whatever strain is prevalent in the area you will be visiting.

And I presume that the OP meant that he gave his medicines away, and not that he gave his malaria away, which is actually how the sentence reads.

bloodypeasant

best to keep your head down - there's a judicious sniper out to get you

edwardseco

This points out the hazard of just popping pills without a knowledge as to the potential side effects..

nadreg

We're still talking about Malaria pills, right?

goangoangone

This has all been covered many times. The majority of people have no side effects. The fact that you start taking them before travel means you can change prophylaxis if there are side effects. A small discomfort for a few days is better than malaria for a lifetime.

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Penri

I usually take Chloroquine & Proguanil and always suffer from the same odd side-effect: Eratic mood swings - usually emotional. It is the strangest feeling. I'm aware of it now and can manage the impact by recognising the signs and changing my outward behaviour accordingly.

I hate taking the tablets, however they're nothing compared to contracting Malaria.

Nick-H

Woops,Nadreg, I guess one might say, "and that's telling you..."

Seriously, I am with dzibead on this. This controversy will probably always have a thread here on IM. Maybe the day there isn't one will be the day everybody stops even thinking about antimalarials --- and that would be the worst thing.

Malaria... serious, big-time, world-class killer.

Antimalarials... available.

I'd like to say "what's more to say?" except I have to admit I don't always use them.

Now, as to the side effect of any particular specific drug, that's another story!

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