Job Discussion Forums

[crispintp]

To all you teachers who are teaching or have teached in Malaria prone countries......

It seems that Malaria tablets are extremely expensive, especially so if you are earning teachers' wages and are planning on staying in a prone area for any length of time. Furthermore, some of the medicines have well-publicised side-effects.

How do you balance the risk of Malaria? Do any of you consider the chances of catching Malaria to be small enough as to not bother taking the medicine?

I've heard that one particular trick that travellers do is do disregard the doctors advise, and only take the tablets at the first sign of illness.

I am particularly interested in hearing from people in the major cities in South China, Vietnam, and Thailand, as these are possible destinations that I may be considering after my current contract finishes.

[shmooj]

nuts.

I grew up in malaria prone countries. Malaria has a two week onset period so if you start taking the tablets once you have symptoms, you will already have it. If it happens to be cerebral malaria, you will end up in a coma from which hardly anyone recovers.

Not only that but if it is just your everyday, common old garden variety, you could suffer recurrent bouts of it for years afterwards as both my own father and my mum's partner do from time to time. Not fun.

Furthermore, if you are on any sort of medical insurance and need treatment for malaria, this cover will almost definitely be invalidated by not taking malaria medication.

Just my opinion of course

[Gordon]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but you can only take anti-malarials for so long (about 6 months?). I'm one of the few unfortunate ones that gets quite a negative side effect from chloroquine. I go somewhat psychotic and to add to that, so does my wife . Quite a pair we were, we used to spend our days apart on our malaria days, so we wouldn't antagonize each other. Eventually, we stopped taking them altogether.

[ls650]

I think it comes down to choosing the lesser of two evils. Some people have very negative reactions to preventatives.

Before I came to Jakarta a doctor gave me a prescription for Lariam. I've asked at the school and with friends, and no one here knows anyone in Jakarta who has caught malaria anywhere near here.

Take a prescription with you, and if the locals tell you it's possible to catch it in your teaching area, you can then take the pills if you think they're a good idea.

[shmooj]

[khmerhit]

Ignore all advice until you get to your destination. Only the local doctors can assess your risk.
kh

[Roger]

Since the original poster is considering visiting South China, I can inform him/her that there is no known malaria risk here. Dengue fever has been reported for a while, but malaria is virtually unknown.
And don't teach your students the wrong past tense of "teach"...

[nomadder]

What do the natives of these areas do?

[crispintp]

teach - taught - taught - Yes, I know, I noticed it this morning, but thought I might have just conceivably got away with it - forgetting of course that TEFL teachers are the most pedantic and unforgiving custodians of the English language! I do it too, to my friends in the pub, but to be honest, I think they're all a lost cause.

I mentioned South China, as I heard that Malaria was still prevalent in Yunnan province, but I think I might have out of date information.

shmooj, I think on reflection that you are probably right. Considering the consequences of malaria infection, it is probably wise to not take any risks, but as khmerhit also said, you can only quantify the risks after consulting a local doctor.

Which brings me to another question......Is it possible to get malaria medicines in the major cities in the infected countries? If so, how does the price compare? On an NHS prescription in the U.K., the medicine costs between 30 - 60 pounds for two weeks worth.

[scot47]

Take malaria seriously. I had colleagues in Zambia who dies of it.
Get local advice and get the medicines locally. There are diferent strains and some of them have developed resistance to drugs.

How serious is malaria ? Well when Britain still had colonies, soldiers who neglected their anti-malarial drugs were put on a charge ( a "252" under the Army Regulations !)

[Alitas]

When in the Amazon region, my husband and I stayed with missionaries who had neem tea every day. They learned the trick from some missionaries who were in Asia. In fact, the tea was served every day for the whole tribe of Yanomamo. They swore by the stuff.

[shmooj]