Malaria pills
Our local travel clinic has prescribed a daily Malarone pill for our upcoming K&T trip.
Does anyone have experience with this medication?
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Our local travel clinic has prescribed a daily Malarone pill for our upcoming K&T trip.
Does anyone have experience with this medication?
Comments
I read on the Forum that when taking Malarone, some people experience some GI issues and some don't. My travel clinic prescribed it for my recent trip to South Africa, even though I wasn't going deep into the country -- just cities on the coast. On day 2, I started having issues, and so decided to discontinue it. That's just my personal experience; not medical advice.
When we did the Zambian, Botswana and S. Africa tour, our doctor recommended doxycycline instead of Malarone. She said many people have gastrointestinal issues with Malarone. That was true with a few on our tour. The doxycycline had no bad effects.
My husband and I took Malarone on three separate Tauck Africa tours and did not have any problems. We took it in the morning with breakfast, including yogurt.
My husband and I took Malarone the whole trip. He had some lower GI issues the second day. I suspected this was from overindulgence at dinner. This also happened to another person in our group of 4. We all continued the medication and the following day they were fine. We did take it with yogurt at breakfast. It's not easy to know if it is just your gut adapting to the local environment or if it is the medication. We were told that all raw vegetables and fruits were "safe" at the hotels we were going to. As a personal preference, I never eat raw fruits and vegetables anywhere where the drinking water is not advisable.
We took Malarone on numerous occasions with no problems until 2023 when wow it affected our guts very badly. It was definitely the meds. Maybe it was a different generic than we have had before. These days we just continue to wear long clothing and use Deet on exposed skin.
Doxycycline is not often prescribed because people don’t remember to take the last dose one week after returning home.
All this is personal choice but do be aware that people do come home after being in Africa with Malaria which can take up to a year to come out. Any fever should not be ignored over that time period. Always tell you dr if you have traveled to a country where Malaria is active.
LIke AZCreeker, I took doxycycline (for India). It's dirt cheap and has minimal side effects. The downside is you need to start a week before your trip and continue it for a month afterwards.
Ah yes. , you are correct BKMD. That’s why people forget, just like I did now.