Anti-malaria prophylaxis for Southern Africa trip (3)
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Dear Andrea,
I lived with my family (incl. 2 kids) for 7 years in Malawi.
First Malaria is reaching the southern coast of S-Africa, nobody
knows the exact frontiers of this Malaria advance at this time with
certainty.
Second prophylaxis:
1) Exposure prophylaxis is the key. Keep a bottle of insect repellent
(Baygon for example)in your bag, in your car, just about everywhere
you can think of. You will find yourself unexpected and unplanned
on evenings at a fiends house or restaurant or somewhere where you
would need it but forgot it at home.
2) Use long sleeve trousers and shirts in the evening, don't sit on
the house steps and admire the (beautiful)sunset while sipping a
sun-downer; it's the time where Mosquitoes are especially hungry
and ferocious.
3) Use Proguanil (Paludrine) combined with Folic Acid. Proguanil is
structurally a Tetra Hydro Folic Acid reductase antagonist, with a
higher affinity to parasite then human THFAreductase. But, if it
can't attach to parasites THFAreductase proguanil will happily
attach to human cells and prevent them from cell division(like
cytostatica). This can, esp. in children, cause mild gastritis and
nose bleeding. Lots of mothers therefore stopped using Proguanil,
but started it again after daring to try my Folic acid remedy.
I always gave in Malawi my kids dosages of 10 mg Folic acid and 1/2
to 1 tabl proguanil daily p.n. During non-rainy season we only used
it while travelling in danger areas (swampy), during rainy season for
a continuous spell of 3 months. The nice thing with proguanil is that
you can take per necessitate as it does not need to built up a
cumulative blood level. But, you have to take it within 24 hours of a
infected bite, otherwise you might discover the misery of Malaria.
FRANK PAULIN, MD, MBA
Lecturer in Public Health Management &
MBA Program Director
Centre for Health Planning and Management
Keele University, ST5 5BG
UK
Tel: +44-1782-593191
Fax: +44-1782-711737
mailto:f.h.paulin@keele.ac.uk
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