Every time i've tried the damn things i've just got sick and dizzy.
Plus i heard that some kinds can make you go blind after long term use and that women aren't recommended to get pregant a year after taking them.
But malaria isn't much fun either.
Did anyone try and alternative methods or are there more friendly malaria pills out there?
I got by fine with homeopathic malaria pills but then i wasn't sure if i was just kidding myself - they didn't make me sick but maybe I was't exposed to malaria anyway.
I guess it depends on how far out in the bush you plan on going...
It's all a scam to make money. Legal (and illegal) drugs are one of the world's biggest businesses, they have a vested interest in scaring you.
Malaria is very real and kills 3 millon a year but that's no reason to go around poisoning yourself to make a pharmaceutical company rich.
hey, nobody is forcing you to take anti malarials
most of the propaganda comes from health organisations. i've never seen a single ad from a pharma company that tells you to take lariam, malarone, ...
wether or not to take it - check the website of the WHO. they have the most up to date information. more often than not, local doctors still have text books from 1972 as reference.
If you are going to an area where there is malaria but are sleeping in a good spot, you'll most likely be ok. if you are sleeping in shacks or out in the open use plenty of DEET repellant and an impregnated mozzie net. if you dont have those, turn to drugs
Yeah, and who do you think the drug companies canvass, bribe and invest in time and time again but the health authorities and doctors.
Doctors in the US are wined and dined every day of the week by the big drug companies promoting some new pill.
If all the money spent on malaria pills went to prevention efforts no one would be dying if it any more.
so, do you think its a business that should be taking care of iradicating an illness, or the govt that you elected?
The business of business is business. I think a president said that.
I don't expect anyone to take care of irradicating illnesses, there's too much money in them.
And me, i didn't elect nobody!
im not sure if anyone still cares bout this conversation, but i totally agree about the whole drug company bullshit, a great book to read is Health Wars by Phillip Day, its really interesting. i took homeopathic stuff for malaria and was fine but mind you i was sleeping in nice places.
jst thought id add my two cents
a lot of the old malaria medicine doesn't even work any more.
Malaria is a reality faced by the world's poor and travelers rarely go out that far into the sticks where the living aint easy, summertime or no.
Taking or not taking malaria pills is a personal choice. Educate yourself then make a decision.
The best way to not get malaria is to not get any mosquito bites in the first place. I recommend taking vitamin b before and during your trip. I spent two weeks in India near a beach with lots of nasty little pools of slimy water nearby where I'm sure tons of mosquitos were making their home and I never got bit once! My friend didn't take anything, sprayed herself with poisonous DEET and had both legs from the ankle to the knee covered in mosquito bites.