I am currently in Game lodge at the Eastern end of the Caprivi strip in Namibia. We have ridden up from Cape Town. According the the UK NHS we are right in the middle of a hot malaria zone. We have been taking the prophylactics now for 4 days and are suffering from the squirts quite badly as a result?

What intrigues me is that every single local we speak to don't bother with any meds. The 70plus year old guy who owns this lodge doesn't even bother with a net over his bed. He keeps a fan on which he reckons blows them away. He has never had malaria.

I know the stats about it being one of the world's biggest killers but it is astonishing just how relaxed people are about it. Perhaps we are seeing monied people not worrying because they know a private hospital will sort them if needs be but in truth if they got it regularly you wou'd think they would take the meds despite the side effects.

Perhaps it's an education/poverty thing again? I am really struggling to reconcile all the dire warnings received when preparing for this trip with what i see and hear from the people who live here.

I now this post is a couple years old but....
Do to poor application practices DDT became a environmental nIghtmare so it would all but disappear. With that said apparently if it is just applied to the inside walls of homes/huts it is very effective and would help cleanse at list urban zones.
According to "scientists" it would be safe unless a human licked the wall.

Common sense says you will touch the wall, sanitation sucks in most places sooo it gets ingested on and on, but it might have some merit.

Messing with Mosquitos genetically scares me, they have been around forever for a reason.

Genetically blacks have a higher resistance to Malaria over other cultures. This is a large part why black slaves were coveted as slaves in swamp areas.

Some people regardless of ethnicity are not as likely to be bit as others, I am not one of them

This is an old thread but because it is a "Sticky" it is still here and not really helping anyone.
The fear of malaria and/or Dengue is widespread in westerners and is helped along by the people who sell the "Prophylactics" who, in many cases don't even know where the countries, that have supposedly high incidence of the maladies, are in the world.


Malaria drugs are big money and big money causes people to hide things or claim they don't work to maintain their control.


It is possible to cure the worst case of Malaria or Dengue overnight at a cost of about 4 us cents.
The Red Cross tested this cure about 7 years ago in Africa and had a video on You Tube for a couple of months showing the whole trial; the testing of the patients, the blood slides under the microscope before and after and etc.
They removed the video then claimed that the test had never happened. I saw that video and have used the cure, always carry it, for it treats other things as well.
I have told many people about it but I have either been treated as demented or a fool. They say "If it's true, how come we don't know about it?"
If you are a person who is not conditioned to believe everything that conventional medicine and their pharmaceutical advisers tell you, you can go looking and find this information for yourself. Where? On the internet of course. Try a few keywords and it will be there .


Ali.

Conventional medicine has done me ok for the last half a dozen decades (and is currently keeping a number of my friends still on this mortal coil), but never say I'm not open minded about these things and tell me about your 4 cent malaria cure. Do I have to catch it first and then cure it or can it be used prophylactically?

The suggested Google search yields mostly articles and videos debunking claims of Red Cross study, experimentation, and "cure."

Red Cross didn't cure Malaria with MMS | Cogito

https://mylespower.co.uk/2017/01/30/...-cure-malaria/

The highest ranking search results which support the claims of a secret "cure" are really just trying to sell you their very dubious products:

MMS & Malaria Treatment in Africa

If you choose to believe the wild claims, there's not a whole lot anyone can do for you.

IMHO, as always.

Mark

I'm very skeptical of anyone who says that malaria isn't a real threat, it IS!!!

As my profile indicates, I live between Europe and Cote d'Ivoire. Due to constantly travelling back and forth to West Africa, I cannot take preventative malarial medication anymore. For years I used Lariam without a problem, but it would mean taking something for 10months a year for my personal situation and probably kill off my liver! does too!!!

I've lost friends to malaria, one in particular who had been living in Ghana for over a decade and did as I do, took something when they had a bout of malaria. Unfortunately this friend wasn't great with needles, feeling strange for a few days the symptoms were ignored due to the fear of them; he died quickly after arriving back in Europe.

My first bout was aged 10, I had one more 15 years ago, then in August this year I was knocked sideways by a nasty bout, a week after getting back to Europe. I would prefer to be sick in West Africa than in Europe where much of the time doctors aren't sure what they're dealing with. However, as many have said, due to the time I spend in West Africa, I do have some sort of immunity as I've built up some resistance.

So my advice to long-term travellers:

• Get malarial tablets for 3 months or so with the help of a doctor, it will hopefully build up some sort of immune system
• Take them religiously!
• When you've finished them, keep aware, still covering with a mosquito net and spray.
• Ideally, particularly in the wet season it would be prudent to have your clothes dunked in Premethin to keep them away at night.
• Any 'odd' feeling, get yourself to a doctor and a blood test done immediately, and maybe another one after a few days.
• In Ghana there are self-testing kits available in some pharmacies & they're useful to have in case of being totally off the beaten track!
• Keep some malarial drugs with you, Coartem or Mephaquin (Lariam generic) are both good to treat it!

Just don't be another statistic & don't think malaria will vanish during our generation, that's living in la-la land!

RANT OVER

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http://www.west-african-views.blogspot.com

If you kill off the mosqitoes you will distroy the hole eco system it is the main food source for so many animals.

An informative article with recent updates on scientific developments and challenges in gene editing to remove the threat of malaria and other diseases to humans.

People v mosquitos: what to do about our biggest killer

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BikingOverYonder.com RTW

Possibly some good news hidden amongst all the bad, regarding the long running battle against this killer disease: "Malaria blocking bug" Microsporidia MB, a parasitic fungus, appears to prevent the development of the falciparum parasite in female mosquitos according to a joint Kenya/UK study.


Avoiding killing the insects themselves thus retaining the ecosystem (but the little buggers are still going to bite us!)


Link to the paper below. Skip a bit to avoid the big words but you'll get the gist of it!



https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-020-16121-y

Subtitle this thread "An Ode to Unsupported Optimism." Starting 9 years ago, it begins with speculation about "malaria-causing mosquitoes soon to be extinct," continues with a suggestion that a vaccine is coming, "maybe in two years," then slips into foolishness with claims of an imaginary cure tested by the Red Cross, and finally something about a fungus (in the same magazine which originally touted the coming extinction of the mosquito vector).

I'm still not holding my breath. In the meantime, great strides have been made in many areas with a combination of low-tech bed nets and old-school DDT spraying. But contrary to one post above, ~10 times as many people still die of malaria as dengue every year.

Edit to add: Cool article, but without prospects for immediate use (in my non-expert estimation). As it says, this fungus joins other biological inhibitors of plasmodium parasite development. None are yet ready for prime time.

When I was getting my jabs for the trip that didn't happen this year I asked about Malaria and was really surprised how much the at-risk areas have shrunk.

https://www.who.int/gho/malaria/en/

You can use a site like travelhealthpro to see the country by country risks and recommended vaccinations, but even with the progress that has been made, malaria isn't one to take lightly. Just this year the friend of a friend was VERY ill with it.

If you are going into a malaria area get some Odomos mosquito repellant. I have spent a lot of time in mosquito ridden areas and it is the best by far. Anyone who has used it will tell you