malarone tablets

absfabs

duncansby wrote: »

As far as I know there are no Malarone generics available. Are you sure you they are the same as it would be very dangerous to take anti-malarial tablets that are not appropriate for the region you are travelling through. They are probably proguanil and chloroquine

I agree. Malarone is POM (=prescription only medicine), not available over the counter as far as I know.

Be careful, there is a lot of chloroquine/proguanil resistant malaria around now. Check what you need for where you are going on http://www.fitfortravel.scot.nhs.uk/

Reaper

imho wrote: »

What part of the world are you going to ? i get mine in India ,a lot of the foreigners living in India just drink lots of schweppes tonic water ,it has quinine in it .

That sounds like a really bad idea to me. If the OP is asking about Malarone then they are probably going to an area of high resistence to common drugs.

Even if not, don't depend on tonic water. From Wikipedia:

Tonic water originally contained only carbonated water and a large amount of quinine. However, most tonic water today contains a medically insignificant amount of quinine, and is thus used for its flavor only.

Another site states:

Tonic water contains less than 20 milligrams of quinine per six fluid ounces. The recommended quinine dosage for treatment of malaria is two or three 200-350 milligram tablets three times a day. If you drink the equivalent of that in gin and tonics, malaria will be the least of your problems.

Over a million people die of malaria every year. Stick to proper drugs.

patwa_2

Yep, just checked with Boots, no generic brands But I found I might be able to take methlaquine as that's what the nurse put down on the info sheet for our trip. Now to phone and see which is cheaper.

Also, I just found that it's prescription, damned - the chemist I saw online mentioned nothing about a prescription.

Oh well, now to trek up to the surgery I guess.

H.

patwa_2

Well, that's the bill down from £120+ to just £55. We're going for the Methlaquine which is a weekly dose rather than Malarone which is daily.

H.

smartie1976

statusquo1 wrote: »

Hi, we are going to China ( Hainan Island ) and were told these Doxycycline (100mg) are better than malarone because of the side effects. We got ours with presciption from here. Ive used them before and are excellent

http://www.stratford-pharmacy.co.uk/index.cfm?page=pharmacy.productDetail&productid=3

As far as I'm aware, malarone has the least side-effects of any of the anti-malarial drugs available, and best of all they are only one a day.
I used them twice last year in india with no ill-effects what-so-ever.

Blimeytrousers_2

Hi, Just wanted to post a bit of advice / experience with anti malarial drugs.

We got back from Kenya a couple of months ago, I was prescribed Malarone by my GP and my wife was prescribed Larium/Mefloquine. We started taking the tablets prior to leaving and my wife suffered awful side effects - paranoia etc. It got to the stage where we thought we might have to cancel as she seriously went nuts for a couple of days! We got her GP to prescribe Malarone and she settled down enough to go on holiday. We also saw people on holiday having some major problems with Larium.

Malarone is more expensive and you have to remember to take it every day but this is one thing I would not look to save coppers on - this is my personal opinion based on our experience.

Please if considering alternatives to Malarone just put a Google search for Larium side effects and then make up your own mind.

Sorry if I have hijacked / ranted but this is something that affected us badly and I wouldn't like to think someone else has problems unnecessarily.

absfabs

doxycycline costs peanuts being an old antibiotic and mefloquine is considerably cheaper than malaron, again because it's been around a long time and available generically.

BUT taking into account potential side-effects I agree with Blimey, I would spend the extra on Malarone and increase my chance of a good holiday.

www.medicines.org.uk may be useful for looking up side-effects info.

PS you need prescriptions for all of these.

never_enough

I phoned lots of chemists & found that a local one was cheaper than Tesco or Boots, which I was surprised at. Our nurse gave us the prescription for Malarone when we went for jabs.

I agree that the type of malaria tablets should not be chosen on price, you should choose what is best for the area you're visiting. It's like travel insurance or jabs, if you can't afford them then you can't afford the holiday...[climbs off soap box...:o ...]

I have had problems in the past with the old type of malaria tablets, side effects ranged from sickness to the loopyness described by blimeytrousers (although I seem to have been a bit luckier than your wife.) Have taken Malarone twice now with no problems, however my OH experienced a rash & severe insomnia.

The comments about drinking tonic water should be ignored, it will not protect you.

WelshLamb

PLease please just speak to your local pharmacist rather than trusing all these online chemists.

It's vital you get them from a reputable source and never the grey market and it's checked properly what you need. Also you can speak to your pharmacist and ask questions etc., as already said by another poster, you cannot put a price on your health and if you're visiting these areas you must make sure you're covered.

Malarone is taken before travelling to make sure you don't suffer any side effects. if you do, then you've got a chance to see what the second line treatment is....some suggestions like the tonic water is scary!!!

Sam_26

I know we offer at £2.15 per tablet. I'm not sure how it competes if the rest of the market place, but we seem to do a lot of large company orders

Always look for the green RPSGB logo on online chemist's website to check they are kosher.

Sam
www.chemist-4-u.com

P.S Malarone is a branded product and Boots won't do their own, your probably confusing with the over the counter Paludrine/Avloclor travel pack