I have a perscription from my doctor for Malerone for a 14 day trip. He has given me 21 pills to be taken once per day, begining the day before I am to leave.
Does this sound right? I remember reading past posts about Malerone, however I thought that the dose was one pill per week.
I will follow my doctors orders, but would like to read some of your experiences with Malerone.

1 per day, it is one of the oter brands you take once a week

I'm not a MD but I am a PharmD (pharmacist)

Start taking the malarone daily 1-2 days before you leave and continue for one week after you return.

Leopardtrack:
That is exactly the course of malarone I have been prescribed and taken for the last 7 years running. I take one on the day of departure, one each day while in-country, and one a day for a week after arrival back in the states.
No side effects, no problems, and no malaria.
Best.....Tom

http://www.gskvaccines.com/Malarone/KeyFeatures.html

>88 lbs. 1 , 250/100 mg tablet per day

I took a regimen of Malarone for a February hunt in Zimbabwe in 2004 - wet season and plenty of mosquitos. I came down with malaria despite taking the drug as prescribed. My doc's conclusion was that taking it starting one day before departure was possibly not sufficient if you're bitten very early in your hunt, as I was. If I were concerned about malaria on a future hunt, I would start Malarone 2-3 days before departure. Malaria is not a lot of fun...

I am not a physician and your mileage may vary!

bring a Rx of doxycycline with you just in case the malarone is ineffective. It is possible, but unlikely you will have immediate signs of malari during your hunt. If you do, then malarone is useless....take the doxycycline until you return to the States.

quote:

Originally posted by TWL:
Leopardtrack:
That is exactly the course of malarone I have been prescribed and taken for the last 7 years running. I take one on the day of departure, one each day while in-country, and one a day for a week after arrival back in the states.
No side effects, no problems, and no malaria.
Best.....Tom

+1

Thanks fellas, and that's what my doc said anyway.
I think I should definetly take them since hunt is mid Oct in Zim.

quote:

Originally posted by Leopardtrack:
I have a perscription from my doctor for Malerone for a 14 day trip. He has given me 21 pills to be taken once per day, begining the day before I am to leave.
Does this sound right? I remember reading past posts about Malerone, however I thought that the dose was one pill per week.
I will follow my doctors orders, but would like to read some of your experiences with Malerone.

Malerone is daily, Larium is once a week.

Having some doxycycline on hand in case of ineffective malerone, or tick bite fever (as I found out last year) is not a bad idea.

Take it at lunch time each day. Taken near bed time it makes your sleepy time more interesting.

Why do you say that John, hallucinations/crazy dreams??
If you take it during the day does it have any effect on you?
My last two trips I rolled the dice and didn't take it.

I have taken Malarone on two hunts with absolutely no side effects. While working in Africa several years ago, we used to take doxy daily, and had to continue it for 30 days after leaving the malarial area.

Larium can be bad news. I've never had sleep problems associated with Malarone, but on a recent hunt, my friends were taking Larium weekly and were having such bad dreams that they ceased taking it. It was so dry in Tanzania that no mosquitoes were around camp, anyway. Larium can really kick your butt.

when i took malarone it gave me the same kind of side effects as did larium. hence now using doxy

The first time I used malarone I began my daily dosage a week before just to see if I would have any side effects (did not want them in Africa) and nothing. Took them with lunch as noted above and a week after leaving the area and had no problems.

I would add that it was also the dry season and very few to no mosquitoes.

quote:

Originally posted by Leopardtrack:
Why do you say that John, hallucinations/crazy dreams??
If you take it during the day does it have any effect on you?
My last two trips I rolled the dice and didn't take it.

No effect whatsoever when taken with lunch. With scotch by bush tv near bedtime... well there be dragons visiting that night.

quote:

No effect whatsoever when taken with lunch. With scotch by bush tv near bedtime... well there be dragons visiting that night.

Me too! 'cept it was Bourbon.

I have been taking MEPHAQUIN - Lariam - for the past 20 odd years, and have never had any of the reported problems.

I generally take it after dinner, and hit the sack.

I have taken Mefloquine Hydrochloride [Larium]
on all 3 of my trips.

I start taking it 2 weeks before I leave and 5 weeks after I get back.

I do not want Malaria.

I have never had a problem with it.
I have taken it for as long as 16 weeks with no side effects.

I also carry ciprofloxacin HCL and Coartem with me as well.

Doxy works great, but, as I mentioned, you have to take it for thirty days after leaving the area. I was doing 30 days in Lokichoggio and thirty days out for about a year, so I was taking it constantly, so I finally just quit. That was before Malarone. Never got malaria, but some of our crew members did. One guy got it so bad in Papua New Guinea that he had to be evaced to Australia. And you can ask Wendell about falciparum. He got that, even while taking Malarone. Go figger.

I took Malerone last year on my trip. I stopped taking it a few days into the safari. Before leaving and during the first part of the trip I was having sleeping problems like night terrors and wild dreams. Next trip I will try something different.

Thanks,

Greg

Listen to the young PHARMD that posted above. He is exactly right. The protocol was changed to 1 to 2 days before leaving because people were getting bitten in planes and at airports. A few unwanted hitchhikers I guess. Malarone is always daily, Larium is always once a week. Truth is I use both depending on the trip or truthfully how I am feeling. If I have been in a funk I use Malarone, if not Larium.
The Good- Both are equally good at preventing malaria.
The bad 1) Lariam has caused depression in some people. It isnt an issue unless you are on the edge anyway. It also can but not always cause vivid hallucinatory dreams. Malarone supposedly only does it in a much smaller sample of patients.
2)Larium is taken once a week while in the endemic area and should be taken one week before and one week after returning home
3) Both are relativly expensive
4) Both have strains of malaria that are resitant to the drugs. That is also true for artequin as well. I does a better job with restant strains but is hardly a panacea. These drugs have all shown to have restance develop in short time frames. This is particularly true in south east asia where it started. The restance is begginning to spread in Africa but currently at a very slow rate. Even if what you are eposed to is not a restant strain there is no guarantee you wont get it. It only happens rarely but most often is a result of not taking the medication as directed. That is exactly how the restant strains of most things get started along with mother nature throwing in few random mutations every so often so the suprise party department can take over. However if you get malaria while taking the meds it is usually a milder form and easier to treat.

So pick your poison, take it as directed and go play. Most of the resistance I am seeing right now is in Vietnam, Thailand, cambodia, burma, Laos.
Doxycycline no longer a first line reccomendation. It works to some degree but has a major down side of photosensitivity. I would use it for tick bite fever only if needed and plenty of sun screen. If you are out when the mozzies are were long pants and sleeves.Also have previously spraid you clothes with permethrin, any sleeping nets spray them as well

I used Malarone during my last trip, but I found that it kept me up at night. The only way I could get some sleep was to take an Ambien. Since we weren't seeing any mosquitos, I just quit taking it and didn't have any problems with sleep thereafter. BTW, I was taking it in the morning and it was still keeping me up at night. Next time I'll try Doxy.

Look at the CDC website AND confer with your M.D.. Chloroquine is ineffective for the malaria found in Zimbabwe, per CDC.

Chloroquine is not used most places anymore. I rarely see it prescribed.