Health and safety forum

From the brochure that Travellers Health Services(run by Alberta Health Services) gave to me in Edmonton, Alberta a few months ago.

"It is estimated that 1 million Canadians travel to malaria risk areas each year and this results in 300-1000 cases. Of these cases, 1-2 people will die each year.(The number of malaria cases may be even higher since many cases go unreported.)".

Although it doesn't specify the percentage of people who (don't) take tablets.

Problem with the WHO is they get their stats from hospitals etc. Most people self treat and never (or can't) get to a hospital. When I lived in Africa, people rarely (even in the expat community) went to see a doctor about something as banal as a wee bout of malaria. About as newsworthy as a dose of flu in winter in the UK. Take a larger dose of the pills and sweat it out was what most people did. You only went to see the doctor about it if you or your family thought you were dying from falciparum...even then I had one doctor make it clear he did not want to be got out of bed in the middle of the night for someone showing severe cerebral malarial symptoms. How things work on the ground and what the WHO says are two different things.

Did you know that the WHO only discovered a bad malarial hotspot in the hills on the Cambodian border a couple of years ago? This is because the condition of the road means it's totally cut off during the rainy season. 60% of the local population suffers from malaria. No one can get there and the villagers can't get to a hospital either so no stats for the WHO. This recent discovery may have warped their statistics a bit about how much risk a tourist faces. The villages in the Cardamom mountains are not a major tourist haunt methinks.

Large-scale malaria survey in Cambodia: Novel insights on species distribution and risk factors 2007.

http://malariajournal.com/content/6/1/37

Benjamin Disraeli, I believe.

The problem here is trying to find any reliable information about the areas through which we may travel. I agree that there will be huge statistical variations between regions within countries, but, despite searching, can find nothing.

In addition, I can find no information at all about where, for example, British people returning home with malaria have been. There is a suggestion that the majority who contract the disease overseas have done so in sub-saharan Africa, but that's it. No information that I can find on how many Brits contracted malaria in Cambodia last year, for example.


For many, I suspect, the whole thing leaves us confused as what best to do.

Again, it really depends on where you are, as pointed out in a few posts here. Where I live there is no malaria. We are not in a malarial zone. But we are in a dengue zone. Dengue is a risk here, but there is no prophylaxis.

I have had to think long and hard about whether to take the tablets or not, and have finally decided that I am going to take Doxycycline when I go travelling through SEA for 4 months during the wet season. It takes just one bite (and then odds go out the window). Although you need to get treatment anyway, I think it gives you a better window of time to get proper treatment at a quality clinic if you are on the tablets.

That said, it I react really badly to the tablets then I'll probably cease taking them and just keep them in supply if I do start to get symptoms. I have friends who have taken these specific tablets and they said that as long as taken with a hearty breakfast, you don't actually feel anything. But then again, it is on a case-by-case basis I guess...

Patrick I live in Thailand.

You might want to PM Rasheed. He lives in Cambodia. Or Sayadian.