To anyone: Do you use malarial prophylaxes in Central America?
No mosquito coils inside... nup nothing to do with gassing yourself, its the brown goo that sticks to the ceiling! Yuk! And hard to get off.mosquito coils in the cockpit and salon.
One of the other issues is the long term affect of taking anti malaria medication. Sometimes the cure is just as bad as the bite. Sure a few times might be ok, but for years and years? Not sure. The preventative measures most assuredly. As Zee pointed out Dengue is a much bigger risk factor in Mexico and the same holds true here in SE Asia.No I haven't, but when I go I will.
I will do whatever is the prevailing medical prevention technique at the time.
Malaria is not the flu. I think you should look at it as a risk vs reward problem. I sail w/ a gal who gets motion sickness in a car. She loves to sail. She takes the prescription level med, plus bands. Sure it makes her a little tired sometimes. Yep, sometimes she isn't 100%. But she once didn't take it and hurled for 8 hrs straight.
This maybe is a bad analogy, but I think appropriate. If the side effects are minimal, and allow you to have a cruise through an area w/ out the potential on set of a serious problem, then I think it's worth it. JMHO.
But only for medicinal purposesi know of no one taking prophylactic antimalarial drugs other than gin and tonic
Ye gads man! Caves?!? That is where the bats and the bat guano are. Willingly going into caves (unless you are a miner) is a bit crazy, but hell, have at it. Willingly going into a certifiable "bat ****" zone without mask, meds and a lot of counseling trying to talk you out of that is nuts.Before my trip, I inquired of the local health dept what I should take and they never mentioned malaria. Later, they told me they thought i was going to some resort on the coast and not wandering in the jungle looking for caves.
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I was on Guadalcanal for 2 years. At the time there were two basic strains: falciparum and vivax. I got the falci after blowing off the meds for 6 months and relying solely on G&Ts (much more fun).My Dad got a strain of Malaria in the Philippines during WWII.
Believe it or not, he got one 24-48 hour attack every February, just once a year, until he died almost 50 years later. I never understood the February thing, it wasn't because of cold weather (Miami). ???