Your own doctor will know best what you specifically require.
Find a local travel clinic after you read what J suggested.
One thing I find of interest in all of this. The last three times I have gone to Africa with various meds, any discussion of the CDC while in Africa will elicit this response from your outfitter/PH; "Your CDC does not know what it is talking about!" I had quite a go-round with my PH last trip about the efficacy of using a common antibiotic for malarial prophylaxis in Zimbabwe. He simply could not grasp the concept at all. As there were zero mosquitos around (quite cool weather) I quit taking it anyway.
James,
Surprised you didnt see any mosquitos in Tanzania. When I was there in Dec, 1985 we had LOTS of them. The worst though was in Botswana in 1990 when I got ate alive by them. Was taking meds on both trips however. What time of year were you in Tanzania?
Planning to hunt Limpopo region this July which is malaria free. However, what vaccinations (if any) and medical prescriptions are required. This is our first trip to SA.
BAndryc
Please do this, there has already been some information posted on this thread that conflicts with information provided to me by my healthcare provider. Let YOUR healthcare provider advise you on what you need.
Most Doctors will not know what you will need.
Visit your travel Doctor, Dr. assistant or Travel Nurse.
First they will go over your Yellow card with you.
They will want to know the number of days that you will be in what country and if it will in in urban or rural settings and what you are doing.
They will go over a check list for each country...Some you will need shots and other it will be at your discretion.
Some like Hepatitis A & B will take many months to complete the 3 shots.
Yellow fever if you need will have to be ordered and you have to be there to get your shot.
The list will go on and on.
When you have your base of travel shots recorded on your Yellow card the options become easier.
What many of us above have went through is we have taken recommended medicines and have not encountered issues while we were on Safari.
Being new You should be starting about 1 year before going to have every thing in the card before leaving.
Most of us take the medicines to prevent us from becoming ill on our safari. After you have taken a trip or two you will be saying some of the same things we have posted.
If you have health insurance check to see if they offer a travel nurse (Mine did) and you tell them where you will be and for how many days and when you show up they will go over the recommended shots or oral medicine you will need. If you elect to not take some of these shots when you travel this could result in your not being able to travel form one country to another.
again your travel nurse will know what is recommended and it is your choice if you want to take the recommended medicines. Be guided that if you elect to not take some of the recommended medicines you may be barred for entering a country. Then what do you do>
Firehuntfish,
You make some excellent points, the reason I don't get specific on what is different in the information provided to me by my doctor versus what was posted here regarding medical advice is I'm not a physician. That is why I refer folks to their care providers. It's the same rationale as when people ask for legal advice on forums, I tell them to talk with law enforcement or a lawyer.
As far as doing more harm than good, I defer to the author of the thread to offer his/her input rather than making that assumption for him/her. I would hope nothing here would give them sufficient cause to question going on a great experience. Thousands of people travel to SA every year, the vast majority have no medical problems on their trip. I would imagine folks who are on this forum that have had problems would have already jumped in with their comments and cautions regarding their experiences.
My question remains unanswered: why would someone traveling all of the way to Africa NOT check with their personal healthcare provider before going?
By the way, the comments about ticks are excellent. I hadn't thought about that or the potential for tick borne illness. I found a tick imbedded on me during my trip. When I saw the number of ticks on my nyala I had a new awareness of a need for bug spray before I venture back to SA. Subsequently a friend with extensive Africa travels shared his experience with a tick related fever that laid him up for a few days in the middle of one of his Africa adventures. Looking back, the presence of "tick" birds on a lot of the animals should also have offered a hint to my dense brain.
One last thought, I believe in preparing for as many reasonable problems as I can before I head into something like a long trip. We haven't even discussed how to avoid or reduce the likelihood of throwing a blood clot as a result of extended sitting, cramped up on an airplane. (Not to scare anyone but that is probably one of the more lethal problems folks can encounter on their trip).