With only eight days until safari departure, I decided to tackle the dreaded malaria medication issue! My past experiences with malaria medicine were unpleasant. Getting the disease would be even worse!
Mozitec and Malarone
I visited a travel clinic in Cape Town and selected Mozitec, a generic form of Malarone developed in South Africa. Mozitec contains atovaquone-proguanil HCL and kills malaria parasites living inside red blood cells and body tissues. Malarone produced in the US is expensive. Less-expensive antimalarial medicines like Doxycycline are hard on the body and known for their brutal side effects.
When we leave Namibia, I begin taking one Mozitec tablet / day and continue taking it for 7 days after returning to Cape Town. My body will be full of the stuff for some time…. The sad truth is no malaria medication can boast a hundred percent protection from the disease. Being safe means taking multiple precautions or potentially suffering the consequences.
Deet, Permethrin, Long Pants and Sleeves
There are more interesting subjects, but malaria is a big deal in some parts of Africa. I pondered forgetting the tablets, taking plenty of deet and permethrin, wearing long pants and sleeves, and being careful when most mosquito bites occur – dusk to dawn. After talking to doctors at the Cape Town clinic who said it would be insane to go on safari without a malaria prescription, I acquiesced : o(.
Fatalities
Malaria can be fatal. The Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates that ninety percent of malaria deaths occur in Africa, mostly in young children under the age of five. Deaths are related to serious complications, including cerebral malaria when parasite-filled blood cells block small blood vessels to the brain resulting in swelling or brain damage
Deaths also occur from various side effects, including pulmonary edema, breathing problems, severe anemia, and kidney, liver, or spleen failure. Some forms of malaria even cause low blood sugar – it’s a very nasty disease!
Plasmodium Parasite
Malaria is curable if it’s diagnosed and treated promptly. You get malaria when bitten by an infected female mosquito carrying the Plasmodium parasite. Plasmodium parasites carry the disease to your liver and eventually infect the red blood cells. Symptoms appear a few weeks after a bite and include high fever, sweating, headache, vomiting, and diarrhea.
South Sahara
The biggest risk factor for developing malaria is living in or visiting tropical areas where the disease is common. Many sub-types of malaria parasites exist and the disease is recurring. The parasite variety that causes the most lethal complications is commonly found in Africa south of the Sahara Desert, the largest hot desert in the world, where I will be for two months!
Last year while traveling in Peru, I picked up an amoeba from eating contaminated fruit and vegetables bought at local farm stalls. The Peruvian doctor who treated me advised sticking to boiled or packaged food – yuck…. The amoeba wasn’t fun, but I imagine it’s nothing compared to contracting malaria. I have had just about every vaccine known to man – shame they can’t develop one for malaria….
Mom flies into at least once a month, not feasible to take tablets, her kidneys will not last, she makes sure to keep the room cold and sprays mosquito repellent on her.
Think the Malarone is the least toxic and for what I will be doing for two months must take it :( but wish it weren’t so. Definitely better than doxycycline!
Wise to take precautions. Over the years I have known several Australians who contracted malaria in New Guinea and still suffer recurrent bouts that lay them low for a week or so. And the sister of an Indonesian friend died from malaria. It was horrible. I didn’t know there were alternative medications. Thanks for bringing that to my attention as I am allergic to doxy.
Interesting. I trekked all over Cuzco to get malaria tablets for our trip to Tambopata to finally find out it had been eradicated for some years. These are very persistent beasts. I used to cover up and sleep under a fan in India until the power went off!