drugs

QUESTION

My son, 7 years old, took Mefloquine course for malaria prevention last year. We are travelling to INdia again this year. Does he and myself need to repeat the anti-malaria pills again this year?

ANSWER

Yes. You need to take anti-malarial preventative medication every time you go back to a malarial area. It is also important to continue taking the drug for the required amount of time before and after returning from your trip—in the case of mefloquine, you need to start taking it two weeks before you depart for the malarial area, and then continue you taking it for 4 weeks after you get back. This ensures that if you are exposed to malaria at the beginning or end of your trip, you are still adequately protected.

If you have some time, we at Malaria.com would be very grateful if you would take a minute or two to answer our malaria survey that we are conducting about our readers’ experiences with anti-malarials, and particularly their side effects.

QUESTION

After I treat my body with the malaria pill how long will it be to start working in my body?

ANSWER

The malaria medication will start working almost immediately after you take it. The way in which malaria pills work differ depending on the type of drug you are taking, but most act on the parasites which infect red blood cells in your body. As soon as the parasite’s life cycle in the red blood cells is disrupted, you will begin to notice reduced symptoms and feel better, though it is important to take the full course of pills given to you by the pharmacist or doctor, as this ensures that all the malaria parasites are destroyed.

If you have recently taken medication against malaria, perhaps you would be willing to complete a short survey on our website, designed to get information about the experiences people have with malaria medication and the side effects they might have experienced? We would be very grateful for a few moments of your time – the link to the survey is here: Malaria Medication Side Effects Survey.