Malaria Prophylaxis

[Slickshooter]

I’ve taken Malarone and it gave me such a bad gut ache that I quit taking it after two days of a 12 day safari.

 

[zephyr]

A side note to taking Doxy ....
Doxy has the tendency to kill everything in your stomach I always take a probiotic when taking Doxy to keep my stomach in order

 

[baxterb]

I’ve taken Malarone and it gave me such a bad gut ache that I quit taking it after two days of a 12 day safari.

Did you take it with fat? Half of malarone is fat soluble, the other half water soluble. Not saying that is the issue of a stomach ache, but I did not know about the solubility issue until halfway through using it and changed when and with what I took it.

 

[Philip Glass]

I’ve taken Malarone and it gave me such a bad gut ache that I quit taking it after two days of a 12 day safari.

Me too! I have used Lariam (the once a week one that give some nightmares supposedly ) with success. In the future it will depend on the location for me. I'll take Lariam if it's high risk ie. Wet and lots of mosquitoes, or just have Coartem handy for low risk areas or times of the year.

 

[baxterb]

A side note to taking Doxy ....
Doxy has the tendency to kill everything in your stomach I always take a probiotic when taking Doxy to keep my stomach in order

Yup. and if your wife takes it, it can increase the incidence of a yeast infection. I'd also take fluconazole for her. I'm not a Dr., but live with a smartypants pharmacy /nursing student kid and rad tech wife who has been around the block, so to speak on stuff like that.

 

[pilar]

Started taking Doxi 100% ( I have had tick fever and West Nile virus) and then was given Mefloquine later when returned to Northern Africa, I would never ever take Mefloquine unless nothing else was available in a emergency.

 

[Jon G]

Don’t mix malarone and booze. At least that’s been our experience. Vivid, disturbing dreams. We take it, but make it a part of our morning routine. No issues.

I support this. Could understand we had these vivid wild dreams each night until I understood it was the booze and the Malarone.

 

[Mark Biggerstaff]

The reason I take Doxy vrs the others is also prior medical issues and Drs recommend Doxy for me. As I have to take a daily low dose antibiotic daily anyways.

 

[mdwest]

mefloquine with booze from time to time for the freakish dreams.

me, being the dumbass that I am, didnt realize that lariam IS mefloquine... its just the pharmaceutical brand name for the generic drug..

I knew you werent supposed to go out on a bender while taking mefloquine... the docs had told us that would result in some pretty bad juju...

but.. the docs gave me lariam.. so... drinking should be ok!

all I know is I woke up the next morning having spent the entire night arm wrestling a polka dotted gorilla, while smoking a hookah in the back of a gulfstream and getting fondled by some weird medusa thing at 35,000 ft...

lariam (aka mefloquine) made me realize that my "dark" side is much more twisted and strange than I ever wanted to imagine lol...

 

[Hogpatrol]

I took Doxy for Angola, put 70 SPF on my exposed skin and still got burnt. On top of that, had to take a laxative to get regular again. I had taken it for a previous trip to Moz eight years ago and had no such side effects. Older body I guess.

 

[Slickshooter]

Did you take it with fat? Half of malarone is fat soluble, the other half water soluble. Not saying that is the issue of a stomach ache, but I did not know about the solubility issue until halfway through using it and changed when and with what I took it.

I took it with bacon and eggs, copious amounts of Africafe, orange juice, 5-6 cigarettes and a large shot of whiskey to wash it all down.

 

[cpr0312]

Doxy is my go to, low to no side effects, protects for malaria and is an antiobiotic to help with undercooked foods and tainted water

 

[Rare Breed]

me, being the dumbass that I am, didnt realize that lariam IS mefloquine... its just the pharmaceutical brand name for the generic drug..

I knew you werent supposed to go out on a bender while taking mefloquine... the docs had told us that would result in some pretty bad juju...

but.. the docs gave me lariam.. so... drinking should be ok!

all I know is I woke up the next morning having spent the entire night arm wrestling a polka dotted gorilla, while smoking a hookah in the back of a gulfstream and getting fondled by some weird medusa thing at 35,000 ft...

lariam (aka mefloquine) made me realize that my "dark" side is much more twisted and strange than I ever wanted to imagine lol...

You can’t make this stuff up…now that’s funny!!!!!

 

[375Fox]

Is there really a physician so dense that when presented with a patient with fever, body aches and severe fatigue WHO JUST RETURNED FROM AFRICA doesn’t think “hey, I wonder if he got malaria? “

Do you really think you are getting into your Doctor that day or a US pharmacy has the medicine in stock? Best case you are getting next day shipping and I think many will be going to urgent care with whatever PA they have that day.

 

[Doug3006]

That information, "BTW, I just returned from Africa," would need to be communicated to the doctor. Malaria is very rare in the US and most other non-African countries.

"When you hear hoofbeats, think horses, not zebras" is a medical maxim that means you should first consider common diagnoses before thinking of rare ones. The phrase, attributed to Dr. Theodore Woodward, is a reminder to use Occam's Razor—the simplest explanation is usually the correct one—when evaluating a patient's symptoms

Good point, but I would think telling the doctor you’ve been to Africa would be a rather obvious thing to do. Keeping that to oneself would be a bit silly. Even if one were unconscious, surely someone in the family would think to tell them.

I returned from South Africa with a high fever and a terrible bite wound. I went to a doc-in-the-box and told them I had contracted African tick bite fever. The doc asked why I thought so. Well, I explained, I’ve just returned from Africa. I got bit (and showed her the rather hideous bite), and oh yeah, I have a 102 degree fever. Then I handed her a print out of the CDC pages on ATBF. She agreed with my diagnosis and prescribed doxycycline. I didn’t think it wise to test her knowledge of Africa-endemic infections.

 

[Sika98k]

Don’t mix malarone and booze. At least that’s been our experience. Vivid, disturbing dreams. We take it, but make it a part of our morning routine. No issues.

Bugger ! So that’s what caused it !