Asia Travel FAQ: Taking malaria pills while traveling in Asia

Answer :

Maybe you should think about this before you elect for that course of pills that pharmaceutical companies make a lot of money from and which, many say, do more harm than good. I say; don't bother with the malaria tablets. I’m not a doctor but there's lots of well documented research on the negative side-affects of anti-malarial tablets and for some scary stories about these, just punch the appropriate words into a search engine of your choice. It’s not pretty reading . Me, I took them ten years ago, got very sick (nausea, headaches, that kind of thing) and haven’t taken them since. I’ve just taken really good care not to get bitten. Easier said than done but not that much easier.

The kind of mozzies that carry malaria are only biting from dusk to dawn so I recommend as well as spending a bit of your hard-earned and investing in a good quality mosquito net and some mosquito repellent cover up at dusk and if you’re an early riser, at dawn. Covering up really just means long sleeves, trousers and socks. If you’re careful then you’ll seriously limit the number of times you get bitten (Even if the little B*****S do get you a few times it would be highly unlikely that you’d contract the big M) and you won’t have to worry about, or suffer, hair loss, migraines, rashes etc.. This said however, you, of course, have to weigh up the pros and cons for yourself and make the informed choice. But in my humble opinion and that of many others anti-malarials are more trouble than they are worth. Just don't get bit!