hullo !!!!

everytime I speak about this issue with local people (talking about wesk / central africa ) ..they dont seem as concerned as us about getting malaria .

why ?

apparently there is a malara treatment , cheap , effective , and fast. Its something called "artesunate hydrocloride" or something like this. People swear that It works , and no side effects (well , definitely much less side effects than lariam)


I though It was another homeopat-herbal-magnetic-cristal quackery ..but surpringly , in EU , I talked to a specialist in tropical medicine and He said that It works. Not only that , but that ITs on the way to be distributed in the west really soon. As a new drug , ITs undergoing all these red-tape double blind safety trials , etc.. etc.. but in Africa is readily available now .

Its manufactured by Bayer , and ITs avaliable everywhere in West Africa for a few euros .Its 6 pills , you take 2, next day 1 , etc,, and so on.and all the times will cure or make your symthoms much better (enabling you to keep on driving ) .

I stocked up quite a few boxes of that for future trips.

UK/Spanish expats in Gambia , dont take any malaria protection at all , and rely simply on using this cure when the first simpthoms arrive. They say Its 100% effective ,etc..


anyone´got experiences with this ?

http://www.malaria-ipca.com/artesunate_amodiaquine.html

have a nice day

Hi Javier,
No experience of this particular variant but most of the "cure" drugs available in Africa are Artemisin based. They are all very effective in their local areas if taken early enough into a bout. Very rarely do you need hospital treatment - although it is still possible.
My personal favourite is Artenam. Others favour Coartem but they all work the same way with a loading dose and then 4-5 days after.
I am usually up and around , though weak, after a day.

Hope this helps

George

Javier,

'Local' as in indegenous people will have a ceretain amount of natural immunity against malaria. However, even that does not protect them.

The Artenam cure worked extremely well for me after early diagnosis (everbody said I had Malaria, couldn't get a test done on the sunday, so self medicated) and I was back in the office after a couple of days...

Friend of mine felt first symptoms on a Friday night and waited 'till almost unconcious on Monday morning before being forcefully taken to hospital. She thought it was a return bout of Typhoid rather than Malaria. The cure was two Artenam injections and had her from delirious in bed back to her feet in three days! Mind you, another 12 hours untreated and she would probably have died!

So the key to using a cure rather than prophylaxis is to be confident that you can spot the early signs and have a reliable test kit (you can get false-negative results with quiet a few kits, but false-positive is more common). If in any doubt about your status, I advice would be to pop the pills and see what happens.

Remember Malaria kills very quickly and can be misdiagnosed as something else.

Saludos

Jens

__________________
You can never have too many bikes......

BMW R100GS
Triumph Tiger 885
Yamaha XT600e

Jens is gone, but not forgotten.

Jens, never heard of Artenam before but sounds interesting. I'm going to SA in 6 months time and worrying about malaria. Can you buy Artenam in the UK?
And does it work for South American "choroquine resistant" strains?
Cheers,

__________________
Maria

www.franglais-riders.com

hi Maria.

dont worry about where to get those Artinam/Artesunate . Once in Africa, virtually every chemists' sell those -or similar ones- . I guess they sell more Artinam than aspirins.

also the same about the malaria profilaxis. I used to pay 30-50 EUR for Lariam/Malarone/ etc... and then I discovered that in Africa , they sell generics (exactly the same) at a ridiculus low price (Generic Lariam goes for around 1 Euro the whole blister of 4 )

Have a nice day

I'm planning to spend a year riding round South America.

Does anyone know how easy it is to buy profilaxis and malaria treatment like Artinam/Artesunate over there ? Should I bulk up here in the UK or better to buy over there? (Ecuador/Peru/Colombia/Brazil?)

Thanks!

__________________
Maria

www.franglais-riders.com