Should I take antimalarials?
This scenario has popped up a lot lately.. should I take antimalarials for my next big trip to a region where malaria is present?
The antimalarial question quickly turns into a bit of a matrix scenario. Do you take the red pill or the blue pill?
Do you risk some nasty side effects of antimalarials like psychosis and hair loss, or do you risk getting a potentially life-threatening case of malaria that drags on and on and is difficult to cure?
If you’re traveling alone, this is just another thing among a million things to worry about. I mean, psychosis would be less damaging if you had a friend to help you out…as long as your friend also isn’t psychotic!
Did you listen to that totally insane This American Life episode where the guy on a Fulbright scholarship to India has a bad reaction to antimalarials and blacks out, only to wake up not knowing who he was or where he was?
I think of that episode every time I take the pill. Also, I think of my hair falling out.
I mean, nobody wants to black out and bald, but I especially am uninterested in blacking out while traveling in an unfamiliar country alone!
Also, know that if you take the pills for several months you may experience a period of hair loss. Everyone I know who experienced that said that it lasted just a short period of time and all their hair ended up growing back as they adjusted.
Ok sorry…I don’t want to scare you!
Blacking out after taking antimalarial pills is extremely unlikely! You’re probably more likely to black out from drinking too much (oopsies!).
Also, conversely, if you choose not to take antimalarials you could black out from a bad case of malaria! This happened to a German friend I met while traveling in Southern Africa. It happened to him in Kenya and the case was so bad that he needed to spend over two weeks in a Kenyan hospital.
He was so embarrassed about the incident that he never told his family! In the end, he told me he regretted not taking the antimalarial medication.
That’s the thing…you do feel pretty lousy if you fall sick with something that could have been prevented.
But I also want to be sensitive to the fact that some people can have horrible reactions to some prescription drugs!
Some ideas to help you answer the “Should I Take Antimalarials?” question!
To help you calm down before your trip, you could easily take a test run and try taking your antimalarial pills at home in a stable environment for a while.
This will help you learn how the pills may affect your body and mind! If you do have a reaction to the antimalarial pills you can just stop taking them and plan another course of action for your trip!
There isn’t just one kind of antimalarial drug! There are at least five but I am too lazy to write them all out here. I have taken Proguanil and Doxycycline myself with no problems.
So for me, my answer the “should I take antimalarials?” question is yes. I end up being able to relax more and not obsess over every single mosquito bite!
Antimalarials and money:
When I first started traveling to regions of the world that had malaria, I never took antimalarial pills because I couldn’t afford them.
If you are traveling for several months, dishing out hundreds of Euros upfront can be a big expense!
One option is to buy them when you arrive. Sometimes they are cheaper abroad, but sometimes that isn’t the case. Also, sometimes they aren’t available over the counter, even in malaria regions of the world. Do your research beforehand!
My malaria scare:
Back in the day when my answer to “Should I take Antimalarials????” was NO WAY! I took a trip to Kenya and Uganda and had a fun time.
I dined by Lake Victoria, I visited tiny Ugandan villages, I crossed the vastness of Kenya…
I also freaked out every time I got a mosquito bite.
If you have traveled to the region, you know how intense those mosquitoes can be!
Why didn’t I take antimalarial pills for my East Africa trip? To be completely honest, I couldn’t spare the money for them. I was on quite the shoestring budget.
But when I returned back home to France I started feeling sick on and off for weeks. That stressed me out even more!
So I went out and spent all the money that I had “saved” by not buying antimalarial pills on medical appointments and blood tests! It was all just to prove that I didn’t have malaria.
I mean, it is better to be safe than sorry. But I definitely felt pretty silly and wasted a lot of time stressing out about that.
It’s your decision.
I am neither a doctor nor qualified in any way to give you medical advice. You should talk to your doctor before making any big decisions about medication.
But also, in my experience, you don’t need the pills if you will be staying in major cities in Southern and Eastern Africa and Southeast Asia.
Just don’t forget to take your bug spray!
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