We’ve booked a trip involving a country where malaria is endemic. We will be on a (small 40 Pax) boat and will be there for just over a week. We will sleep and eat breakfast/dinner on the boat, but each day we will spend time ashore in wilderness, rural and metropolitan areas.
I’ve been researching and the best advice has been to take anti-malarial medications and, above all, avoid getting bitten by mosquitoes.
Lots of stuff out there so I am looking for some personal advice on what anti-mosquito products, available in Switzerland, we should use. We are OK with DEET products.
Any other tips would be welcome.
Jungle formula products. They are 50% DEET.
There used to be a version in liquid form so you could put a few drops in your hands and rub them all over exposed skin but now it’s only spray and roll on.
You may have to order it from Germany (I appreicate you said you wanted to buy it here).
Don’t let a Swiss pharmacy try and sell you something ineffective / herbal / natural instead.
If you can’t confirm that the boat has adequate insect screening in your cabin windows then it may be prudent to take a hanging mosquito proof net to hang over your bed (take some gaffer tape and string incase there isn’t an obvious means of fixing it)
This means you don’t have to cover yourself with repellant at night, especially if you have just showered before bed.
Something like this but you can get them much cheaper
Mosquitos also bite during the day and not just at sunset or in the evening so put on repellant when you get up.
In the last year I’ve been to Senegal and Rwanda and took a course of the antimalarial Malarone (atovaquone and proguanil) to cover me for the trip. Barrier protection is great but it only takes one of those buggers to break through your DEET shield and you could find yourself very ill, especially since most of us are naive to malaria and have none of the acquired immunity of the natives. Do also check seasonality, some endemic countries have high seasons where the mosquitos are particularly active. Others are more perennial so you need all year round protection.
Malarone is a once daily tablet that you take on the day of travel and then with breakfast each morning. You continue taking it for a few days after you return in case you have the parasite in your blood (n.b. its 98-100% effective in preventing Plasmodium falciparum malaria, the most serious form in Africa if that’s where you’re going).
He did write that he was planning to take malaria prophylactics but wanted advice on other stuff.
Depending on where he is going (he didn’t say) there are many other serious mosquito-borne diseases and the risk of catching these would be reduced by prevention of being bitten.
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Thank you both. It’s Madagascar that we are sailing around. The boat is fully air conditioned indoors but has some outdoor areas too.
So what brand of DEET is recommended?
In my post above, IMO:
The WHO recommend 50% DEET.
This was the brand I got from the travel clinic of the University of Zurich, and its available over the counter.
It seemed to do the trick, but its 30% DEET which may be a sweet spot for Swiss patients (Switzerland tends to be more conservative)… I’m not sure.
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It’s good for six hours. Jungle Formula is said to be good for nine hours.
Anti-Brumm Forte is 30% DEET.
That’s the one you need then!
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What about the ultrasound bracelets? Belts and Braces.
Belts and braces would be to spray your outer clothing with permethrin, wear long sleeves and trousers and to have a permethrin-coated insect net to sleep at night.
Belt and braces would not be to rely on unproven mumbo-jumbo:
A 2010 review article , externalexamined 10 field studies, in which ultrasonic repellent devices had been put to the test, and concluded that they “have no effect on preventing mosquito bites” and “should not be recommended or used”.
It goes on: “Given these findings from 10 carefully conducted studies, it would not be worthwhile to conduct further research on EMRs [electronic mosquito repellents] in preventing mosquitoes biting or in trying to prevent the acquisition of malaria.”
Here
I understand from other posts of yours that you are no longer a spring chicken and that you have other health issues which may effect your body’s ability to fight a tropical disease. (Apologies if I am wrong here).
I took all the precautions when I was younger but still got a mosquito-borne disease (dengue), spent three weeks in hospital and lost a third of my body weight so I tend to take these things very seriously now.
I’d love to go to Madagascar !
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Thanks, I also found this
So no to Ultrasound.
No, I’m not a spring chicken and I don’t want to add to to my challenges, hence my questions.
We are looking so forward to this trip.
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For the clothing spray containing permethrin I found nobite textile, also at Galaxus.
https://www.galaxus.ch/en/search?q=Nobite+textile
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Agree.
That sounds miserable! Based on this post, I’d say that belts and braces for Bowlie might also include a travel insurance with repatriation included in the coverage. Just in case.
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Thx 3Wishes.
I am a long term member of both Rega and Air Glaciers. Braces and belts
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