In about a month, I’m going to be in a location that requires malaria pills. Specifically, I’ll be taking Mefloquine unless that proves to have too many neuro-psychiatric side effects. In the interest of freaking myself out, I’m curious to hear people’s stories about both malaria and malaria drugs. What kinds of malaria pills have you taken, and did you see the side effects? In the event of the pills not working, how bad was your case of malaria, and how long did you require treatment for it?
My SIL’s FIL (convoluted, I know) had malaria most of his life. Usually it was no problem, but when it flared up it was devastating.
Better not to get it!
My bunkmate at summer camp had it. That was the year that Lenny contracted ptomaine posoining and Jeff got himself lost in the woods.
I don’t want to be a scaremonger, but I’ve spent a lot of time in malarial areas but was scared off Mefloquine by storis like this. I know a few people who’ve taken it with no problem, but many others I know quit the treatment halfway through because of nightmares and worse.
Personally, I’ve never taken malarial prophylaxis - I just make sure to cover myself with repellent all the time.
I took Lariam when I was in South Africa about 10 years ago, and the only side effects I noticed were some crazy-ass dreams. My father had an especially vivid one involving Technicolor snakes. Other than that, things were fine.
Where are you going?
You seem to have a good head on your shoulders about this, but make sure you test your perscription out for a week before you leave. I took doxycycline with my for my three month trip to India, but soon learned it made me naseous every morning. I just couldn’t do it and had to take my chances with the buggies.
The vast majority of people taking Lariam (and there are lots of them) don’t experience any major symptioms. If they do, it is almost always a simple matter of switching drugs.
I’ll tell my story tomorrow…don’t have enough time right now, but don’t wanna forget it.
The only malaria stories I could share are about finding the parasites in blood smears in the hematology lab.
They’re actually sort of pretty to look at, even though they’re pretty bad news for the owner of the blood.
Smart move taking the medication, I think. Malaria is not a fun thing to get.
At one time or another, I’ve taken all of them: chlorquine, Lariam/mefloquin, malarone, and doxycycline. I’ve never had a problem with them, and never had malaria.
I’ve had it twice; once because we were travelling in an area that wasn’t supposed to have malaria, but somehow did, and once because I was lazy about taking my anti-malarial pills (can’t remember now which ones).
Cut me some slack, ok? I was an angsty teenager at the time. 
Anyway; I had the whole works - hot flashes, cold sweats, lack of sleep, loss of strength to the point of feeling totally debilitated and unable to even get out of bed and walk around. The whole thing lasted about two weeks. The first one was pretty mild, but the second one was hell. Wouldn’t wish it on anybody. Chug down 'em pills!
I go into malaria areas at least twice a year, sometimes more. I’m one of those nutcases who doesn’t take medication. I burn whole forests of incense, use DEET based sprays, and keep close tabs on symptoms. I also try and avoid high risk seasons.
So far, so good.
I stopped taking the shit when I one night I first felt very dizzy and light headed. Then the floor started to move and I spent about half an hour trying to work out why the hell I felt like I was starting to experience a trip without having taken any acid. I’d drank lots of water so it wasn’t dehydration.
Stopped taking the pills and everything went back to normal for the rest of the trip. I just made sure I had lots of strong repellent on 90%+ DEET should do the trick but it burns the shit out of your face when you first apply it.
I have no fun stories, mainly because when I was staying near Mombasa for a fortnight I ate my Malarone like a good little boy and used my 50% DEET with abandon. No ill effects to report, although the varnish did peel off the bedside table next to which I stood when applying the DEET morning and evening.
“DEET - Because not even mosquitoes will bite a human covered in varnish remover™®”
Ok here we go.
I’ve had malaria twice. Once as a very young child - about 2 years old. I was with my biological mom, and when my aunt came home, she found my mom reading a romance novel and couldn’t find me anywhere. You need to know stoves in India are often these two burner things that sit about two feet off the ground. Anyway I had crawled underneath one of these and was shivering and blue with cold. Doc said I must have been going up and down - malaria fevers do that - for hours and mom never noticed. :rolleyes:
The next time was when I was 15. I had a chance to go to India at the end of the week…literally, it was Wednesday and they were offering me to go Sunday. So we rushed through the doctor’s visits and everything. But quinine has to be taken like two weeks in advance.
So I went to India, faithfully taking my pills. I must have caught it right in the beginning, when I was still building up resistance. But malaria has a long incubation period. It was the middle of July when I went, and I was fine through July and August.
Came back in late August. First day of school, I started running a fever middle of day but mom (adoptive mom) didn’t believe me, and I guess I can’t blame her…all kids complain. Second day, same thing…fever and chills in the middle of the day. She’d given me Advil.
Third day - I woke up and promptly threw up. That convinced her, and then I was sick for the next two weeks. Each time the fever would shoot up with chills, and then drop down with sweats. It was up to 104 once.
The American doctors could not diagnose it. They said hepatitis, some sexual diseases (I wasn’t sexually active yet), and all kinds of other things. In the meantime I’d cry because I was so miserable, and mom would cry because she didn’t know what to do. I barely remember Dad during this time.
The worst part was when I could no longer keep 7-Up down and began throwing that up, too. I lost about 20 pounds in 2 weeks, and became bone-thin.
Finally she took me to an Indian doc, a respected member of our community, who took a few minutes with me and gave me quinine. I was better in a couple of days.
One of my scariest times ever.
I took Chloroquine (Aralen) with no side effects whatsoever. Not sure if this is helpful for you, though, since I believe different areas have different strains of malaria, requiring specific meds.
I last needed malaria pills about 20 years ago, back when Chloroquine was still the drug of choice for most areas. Are the mosquitoes now resistant to it? I never had any reactions to it, though the word was that it prevented you from tanning!
FWIW, in tropical Africa, I don’t see how you can avoid being bitten. The couple of times I fell asleep unprotected by a net, I ended up with hundreds of bites. Even with a net, you get bitten, where a mosquito gets in with you, or where some part of you is in contact with the net.
I remember my roommate suffering bouts of malaria. It would be 95 degrees, and he’d be huddled over my hotplate and covered in blankets.
Right, and that Joey kid had the awful poison ivy rash, too. I hear his eyes got swollen shut!