any clue?
When I got my bag robbed in Nepal, some of my malaria tablets were in there.
Because the useless doctor in London hadn't given me any malaria medication, saying it was best to go to the country and ask them what they take, I had to buy them from a pharmacist, so got the wrong stuff.
The medication I was taking was Larium, a brand of mefloquine by Roche. It's usually not advisable for divers (or for anyone really, it's famed for its horrific side effects), and for the first month the side effects (crying, weird hallucinatory style dreams) were fairly severe, but they slackened off after that, so I kept taking it.
You're supposed to keep going till four weeks after being in a malaria zone, and I have one week of this stuff left, so in a fortnight need more.
I called at the university hospital in Varanasi, and got the nearest I could get: a form of mefloquine by Mefloc, which describes itself as 'mefloquine hydrochloride 250mg'.
The exhausted, blood spattered doctor at the Heritage Hospital ER was insistent that if I don't have malaria, I don't need to take anti malarials, and as I don't have
any Larium packaging, I'm not sure it's the same stuff. I'm a bit worried what I have 9 pills of is actually medicine for people who already have malaria.
If it's the wrong stuff, it will be pretty dangerous to take it, especially as when I start taking it, I'll be in a very mosquito-- and sandfly-infested area, and diving
three times a day, doing my deep diving certification. Which means I'll have someone qualified as a Rescue Diver with me, but obviously I'd prefer to be on non-dangerous meds and not getting malaria.
!!!
I've looked on the web. But I'm stymied.
Any clues?
Because the useless doctor in London hadn't given me any malaria medication, saying it was best to go to the country and ask them what they take, I had to buy them from a pharmacist, so got the wrong stuff.
The medication I was taking was Larium, a brand of mefloquine by Roche. It's usually not advisable for divers (or for anyone really, it's famed for its horrific side effects), and for the first month the side effects (crying, weird hallucinatory style dreams) were fairly severe, but they slackened off after that, so I kept taking it.
You're supposed to keep going till four weeks after being in a malaria zone, and I have one week of this stuff left, so in a fortnight need more.
I called at the university hospital in Varanasi, and got the nearest I could get: a form of mefloquine by Mefloc, which describes itself as 'mefloquine hydrochloride 250mg'.
The exhausted, blood spattered doctor at the Heritage Hospital ER was insistent that if I don't have malaria, I don't need to take anti malarials, and as I don't have
any Larium packaging, I'm not sure it's the same stuff. I'm a bit worried what I have 9 pills of is actually medicine for people who already have malaria.
If it's the wrong stuff, it will be pretty dangerous to take it, especially as when I start taking it, I'll be in a very mosquito-- and sandfly-infested area, and diving
three times a day, doing my deep diving certification. Which means I'll have someone qualified as a Rescue Diver with me, but obviously I'd prefer to be on non-dangerous meds and not getting malaria.
!!!
I've looked on the web. But I'm stymied.
Any clues?
posted by Lectrice at domingo, abril 09, 2006
5 Advice:
V. Lariam (TM) is the well known prescribed brand name in USA and UK.
Mefloquine Hydrochloride is the chemical name for the same product which will be sold as a generic anti-malarial - OR as another country's branded equivalent to Lariam(TM).
If you have obtained another brand which is labelled as containing Mefloquine Hydrochloride 250mg. strength. Then you have the identical pharmaceutical equivalent to Lariam.
Hope this helps.
wow! luke sure seems to know his stuff...
yay! coz i had nothing.
I asked P about the anti-malarial stuff and if she ever got them. She said she had all the tropical diseases shots except for that one because apparently one of the side effects of the anti-malarial pills is to fuck up your mind. Also, she said, that most of the foreigners that are in Bangkok jails are there because they have gone crazy a bit (but only temporarily), thanks to the anti-malarial pills they were taking.
But she said, not all people get that side effect. Some seems okay with the pills, but some aren't.
And since you've been taking them and none for the worse, I guess you are not getting that side effect, so I shouldn't worry.
And um, I don't know any anti-malarial drugs. But if you do get malaria in the Philippines, my sister assured us that it is a controlled disease, like tuberculosis and dengue fever :)
-Aha ... thank you, guys. I think it's the same stuff. I did get the weird ahllucinatory side effects, last October, when I started taking them. They seem to be happening again on the new ones - the difference being that this time, at least I know where the weird dreams and shapes and pictures are coming from, and don't really think I'm so mad I'd see four leaf clovers growing from my chest....
Ta!
Gracias señor. This entry was written a long time ago. I'm nottaking any malarial medication at the moment, and when I eventually hit the Amazon at the end of next month, I shall be taking doxcycline. This does not have the mental disturbacning side effects of mefloquine (depression, horrific nightmares, etc), but it does make you sunlight intolerant.
Which is dead useful in the equatorial jungle.
Blood anti malarials.
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