Malaria
Antimalarial medication is used to prevent and treat malaria.
You should always consider taking antimalarial medicine when travelling to areas where there's a risk of malaria. Visit your GP or local travel clinic for malaria advice as soon as you know when and where you're going to be travelling.
It's very important to take the correct dose and finish the course of antimalarial treatment. If you're unsure, ask your GP or pharmacist how long you should take your medication for.
It's usually recommended you take antimalarial tablets if you're visiting an area where there's a malaria risk as they can reduce your risk of malaria by about 90%.
The type of antimalarial tablets you will be prescribed is based on the following information:
You may need to take a short trial course of antimalarial tablets before travelling. This is to check that you don't have an adverse reaction or side effects. If you do, alternative antimalarials can be prescribed before you leave.
The main types of antimalarials used to prevent malaria are described below.
A combination of antimalarial medications called chloroquine and proguanil is also available, although these are rarely recommended nowadays because they're largely ineffective against the most common and dangerous type of malaria parasite, Plasmodium falciparum.
However, chloroquine and proguanil may occasionally be recommended for certain destinations where the Plasmodium falciparum parasite is less common than other types, such as India and Sri Lanka.
If malaria is diagnosed and treated promptly, a full recovery can be expected. Treatment should be started as soon as a blood test confirms malaria.
Many of the same antimalarial medicines used to prevent malaria can also be used to treat the disease. However, if you've taken an antimalarial to prevent malaria, you shouldn't take the same one to treat it. This means it's important totell your doctor the name of the antimalarials you took.
The type of antimalarial medicine and how long you need to take it will depend on:
Your doctor may recommend using a combination of different antimalarials to overcome strains of malaria that have become resistant to single types of medication.
Antimalarial medication is usually given as tablets or capsules. If someone is very ill, it will be given through a drip into a vein in the arm (intravenously) in hospital.
Treatment for malaria can leave you feeling very tired and weak for several weeks.
In some cases, you may be prescribed emergency standby treatment for malaria before you travel. This is usually if there's a risk of you becoming infected with malaria while travelling in a remote area with little or no access to medical care.
Examples of emergency standbymedications include:
Your GP may decide to seek advice from a travel health specialist before prescribing emergency standby treatment.
This is a precaution, even though there's no evidence to suggest mefloquine is harmful to an unborn baby.
Chloroquine combined with proguanil is suitable during pregnancy, but it is rarely used as it's not very effective against the most common and dangerous type of malaria parasite.
Malaria is a serious tropical disease spread by mosquitoes. If it is not diagnosed and treated promptly, it can be fatal. A single mosquito bite is all it takes for someone to become infected. It's also important to be aware of the symptoms of malaria.
Symptoms of malaria can develop as quickly as seven days after you are bitten by an infected mosquito. Typically, the time between being infected an dwhen symptoms start (incubation period) is 7 to 18 days.
Malaria is caused by the Plasmodium parasite. The parasite can be spread to humans through the bites of infected mosquitoes. There are many different types of plasmodium parasite, but only five types cause malaria in humans.
Antimalarial medication is used to prevent and treat malaria. You should always consider taking antimalarial medicine when travelling to areas where there's a risk of malaria.
Malaria is a serious illness that can be fatal if not diagnosed and treated quickly, particularly in pregnant women, babies, young children and the elderly. The Plasmodium falciparum parasite causes the most severe malaria symptoms and most deaths.
There is a significant risk of getting malaria if you travel to an affected area. It is therefore very important that you take precautions to prevent it. Malaria can often be avoided using the ABCD approach to prevention.
Unlike many travellers, Alex Beard was careful to take precautions against getting bitten by a malaria-carrying mosquito.