Help - malaria tablets!!

PUREHOMES

for mine too.

It all depends on the strength of tablet.

The greater the risk in the country you are going to, then the more you are going to spend.

I would steer clear of the cheap ones.

I went to West Africa where there is a high risk...The tablets i had were Malarone which are high strength.

suzzi2704

Oh man... I didn't realise I didn't have to go to the Dr's for them. I'm only 21 quite naive still sigh

The mother sent me on instructions to get Malarone... which turns out to be the most expensive one you can get!! Mothhhhheeeeerrrr!!
My mum and dad are in their late 40's so not retired or anything.... :S One is very baffled.

Will I have to pay for these injections I'm getting next week too then??

littlestar1981

For the Dominican, it is Chloroquine, which I got for £2.16 at Asda.

I'm going to Tanzania and have been told I need Malerone or Doxycycline - the price difference between the two is huge but they are both still hideously expensive.

But you have to take the advice of your doctor based on the country you are going to - Chloroquine might be cheap but it won't protect you for a nanosecond in Africa or Asia.

Joannekerry

Been away a few times when I have needed Malaria tablets and I must say Doxycycline are wonderfull with me, cures travel tum and allsorts! First time had on nhs prescription, next twice was on private script but fetched some last week and once again it went on a nhs script. Knowing how much these things cost I always budget it for them on the cost of my holiday.

Injections vary, yellow fever is only done at certain Surgeries and you have to pay, tetanus, polio etc you dont but Typhoid and Hep are normally on a nhs prescription.

Voyager2002

PUREHOMES wrote: »

for mine too.

It all depends on the strength of tablet.

The greater the risk in the country you are going to, then the more you are going to spend.

I would steer clear of the cheap ones.

I went to West Africa where there is a high risk...The tablets i had were Malarone which are high strength.

No, it is not about "strength". The parasites that cause the disease are different in different places. The various drugs work against some strains of the parasites, but not others. Therefore, you need to ensure that the drugs that you choose are effective against the parasites that are present in the place that you are visiting.

Malarone is the most recent anti-malarial, is far and away the most expensive, and works in some special situations where the parasites can resist all other drugs. However, if you are visiting places such as India or South America, there is no need to spend the extra for malarone since many less expensive drugs are perfectly adequate there. And I do agree that malarone was a good choice for West Africa (although I used conventional pills when I worked in Ghana and had no problems at all).

Voyager2002

littlestar1981 wrote: »

For the Dominican, it is Chloroquine, which I got for £2.16 at Asda.

I'm going to Tanzania and have been told I need Malerone or Doxycycline - the price difference between the two is huge but they are both still hideously expensive.

But you have to take the advice of your doctor based on the country you are going to - Chloroquine might be cheap but it won't protect you for a nanosecond in Africa or Asia.

I agree with your main point, but when I work in India (part of Asia) I take chloroquine together with another drug. And I relied on chloroquine for my first African journey (Madagascar), although I was seriously ill and a doctor whom I saw thought it might have been malaria. Moral: ask your doctor.

Crabman

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adecor

Please gain as much information as you can regarding health issues when travelling. My best friend got the worst kind of malaria in Kenya (falciprium). This was due to her GP wrongly prescribing as they were not up-to-date on the latest information.....
There are so many web-sites with really good information and guidelines - here's a couple for you to look at
http://www.fitfortravel.scot.nhs.uk/
http://www.thehtd.org/travel/destination.asp?DocID=165

The best thing is to try and prevent being bitten in the first place, which is easier said than done:eek:

We had to cancel a trip to Borneo a few years ago & had paid around £250 for our Malarone. They are still in my cupboard, which is so stupid as they are out of date. Somehow I just can't bring myself to throw all that money down the loo!!

hxm

some GPs will issue an NHS prescription for anti-malarials, depending on your circumstances. My friend's doctor did when we were going on a trip to Kenya because we were going to work with a church out there and my GP agreed to do the same for me when I requested it. I had previously had to get them on a private prescription and used Stratford Pharmacy (online) where they were quite a bit cheaper than a High Street chemist. You just have to send in your private prescription and you get them next day delivery. There are other online pharmacies, but this is the only one I can recommend as I haven't used any others

LondonDiva

GPs are only obliged to issue prescriptions that are clinically neccessary.

Your parents were lucky to get a GP with a favourable interpretation of the NHS regs. While GPs can prescribe what they wish, the rule of thumb is that you do not need anti-malarials to live in the UK and the NHS is there to cover UK residents in the UK.

The guidance recently is that if patients go abroad, costs of preventatives need to be factored into the cost of the holiday and the GP would be supported in refusing to issue medication for a condition not arising from the UK