It’s important to take malaria prevention seriously if you’re going to areas where the disease is prevalent: take your tablets, cover up after sunset, use insect repellent and a mosquito net. Malaria is dangerous — there are 212 million new cases annually and 429,000 deaths — but there’s no need to panic if you play by the rules. Seek advice from your local GP or travel clinic and ask a local tour operator too. If you do need to take antimalarials, there are four main drug regimes available:
Doxycycline (also known as Vibramycin-D) Relatively cheap but possible side effects include light sensitivity, heartburn and thrush. It can reduce the effectiveness of contraceptive pills or patches. Mefloquine (also known as Lariam)
Not recommended if you have depression or other mental health problems as it can cause sleep disturbances, anxiety, depression, panic attacks and hallucinations. Disclose any previous mental health problems to your doctor, including mild depression. Chloroquine (also known as Nivaquine or Avloclor) and Proguanil (also known as Paludrine) Rarely recommended nowadays for Africa because they are largely ineffective against the most common and dangerous malaria strain, Plasmodium falciparum.