Coartem availability in UK

[Crashbox]

I've been told by my pharmacist that Coartem is not available in UK and the only way to go is to take prophylaxis. Has anybody been able to get hold of it?

[mandm]

In the UK this is known as Riatem. I have just managed to get a private prescription. It is very expensive here, much cheaper using the Canadian on line pharmacies.

[Cam Johnson]

Hi,
Are you going to Africa? Cheap and plentiful supply available in most large towns. As you are going to use it as a treatment, it's not required to get it before travel as you will not display symptoms for some time after infection, which will give you time to buy locally. I swear by this kind :
If you've had malaria before, you'll recognise the symptoms and you should start the course as soon as possible, don't forget to finish the whole treatment.
CJ.

[docsherlock]

Lordy, not another bloody malaria thread......

CoArtem will be available in the UK but no-one is going to prescribe it for you unless you actually have malaria.....

The strategy of waiting until you get malaria and then treating it with locally sourced cheap drugs that cost a lot in the first world could get you killed.

You may wish to research previous threads on this subject.

[Cam Johnson]

Thanks for your input Doc. For those of us who live in Africa taking prophylactics 365 days of the year is not feasible nor healthy. Therefor taking measures to prevent being bitten are just as important as having a cure close at hand when infected.

The strategy of of waiting until you get malaria and then treating it with locally sourced cheap drugs that cost a lot in the first world is exactly what 99% of Africas population does (that is my made up figure by the way, most likely not exactly correct).

I have read through previous malaria threads here on the HUBB and there is a lot of helpful info and also a lot of bunkum scaremongering. For many the posts regarding malaria here are confusing and conflicting, however, the OP asked about where to get a hold of Coartem. I gave a tip and advice for a product that I have used to successfully treat previous bouts of malaria. It is made by Novartis under license in the PRC.

Novartis Malaria Initiative: Home

If a post offends you mate, you are welcome not to read it. Likewise your condescending attitude is not appreciated, although it seems thats your style.

[docsherlock]

You may wish to read the available research on fraudulent drug manufacture and sale in Africa and which drugs are usually involved.

You may wish to consider that indigenous Africans have a degree of natural immunity to malaria that visitors do not and that a strategy that works for them may result in the death of a visitor, even if the local drugs are genuine, but about 40% of the time, they are not.

I haven't seen much scaremongering on the HUBB, but I have seen a lot of bunkum of the ilk that you peddle as in your post below; malaria kills a lot of people and the misinformation that you propagate can add to that.

I usually state facts in my posts, of two sorts:

1. The recognized current prophylaxis and treatment approach for travelers with respect to malaria.
2. The evidence based risk of relying on drugs bought in the third world. Note the use of the word risk, rather than certainty.

I'm not sure why you would feel that stating facts is condescending, but I am sure that I really don't care what you think either - you're just another guy who lives in Africa: the sky is blue, grass is green and malaria and the drugs issues are what they are.

One pays one's money and one takes one's choice, but I offer to all readers the opinion that waiting to get malaria and then treating it using local drugs is not at all a good idea and that visitors to malarious areas would be well advised to practice bite avoidance together with regular drug prophylaxis using drugs sourced from a reliable and reputable pharmacy.

Originally Posted by Cam Johnson

Thanks for your input Doc. For those of us who live in Africa taking prophylactics 365 days of the year is not feasible nor healthy. Therefor taking measures to prevent being bitten are just as important as having a cure close at hand when infected.

The strategy of of waiting until you get malaria and then treating it with locally sourced cheap drugs that cost a lot in the first world is exactly what 99% of Africas population does (that is my made up figure by the way, most likely not exactly correct).

I have read through previous malaria threads here on the HUBB and there is a lot of helpful info and also a lot of bunkum scaremongering. For many the posts regarding malaria here are confusing and conflicting, however, the OP asked about where to get a hold of Coartem. I gave a tip and advice for a product that I have used to successfully treat previous bouts of malaria. It is made by Novartis under license in the PRC.

Novartis Malaria Initiative: Home

If a post offends you mate, you are welcome not to read it. Likewise your condescending attitude is not appreciated, although it seems thats your style.