# My doctor wants me to take malaria meds... Thoughts?



## Lorij (Jul 8, 2012)

Hey guys need some advice. Went to my doctor today to get my new prescriptions for my asthma meds so I could get them filled before my trip. My doctor gave me 6 refills so I could fill them all at once before I leave on the 1st. He then told me I wanted me to pick up a rx for anti-malaria meds. I have never taken them before when I went, but he says according to the CDC the region of Oaxaca I'm going to is high risk. I'm going to Puerto Angel. MAnyo e have any thoughts on this? Or anyone in the area aware of an outbreak? Also we do not sleep with open windows nor do we use a mosquito net. Also I am nervous about taking any meds at all now because we are trying to conceive. Thanks in advance !


----------



## citlali (Mar 4, 2013)

Are you going on vacation or to live there? I do not know anyone living down there who takes anti mlaria medication but maybe someone else knows. In Mexico you are more at risk for dengue than malaria but even so people do not take anything. If mosquitoes love you use a spray to protect yourself and sleep under fans or in a/c room the cold or wind tends to discourage mosquitoes.

See a doctor when you are down there if you feel there are lots of mosquitpes and see what he says. I live in Alabama on Mobile Bay a long time ago and there were more mosquitoes there than on the coast in Oaxaca , you will encounter no see em in the rainy season and mosquitoes so bring a spray.


----------



## Longford (May 25, 2012)

The CDC does include "rural Oaxaca" as an area where malaria has been reported. It also suggests which medication might work best. Whether or not you should follow the advice of the physician who knows you best ... only you can decide. The point's already been made, that Dengue Fever is probably the greater risk ... for which there is no medication from what I understand. My experience has been that finding a hotel room with good/effective screens on the windows can be a real challenge. Many, probably most hotels in PA don't offer air conditioning and you'll want to keep your windows open to get some air ... and to enjoy the environment. So, if your skin will tolerate it ... travel with a product that has a strong concentration of DEET as its principal ingredient. Minimize, best you can, the opportunity to be bitten by mosquitoes.

As for filling 6 or 7 prescriptions of asthma medication all at once and traveling with it to Mexico: technically, I think the customs folks, if they check your belongings, allow only a 90-day supply of medications for personal use. Unless you take something that's truly a unique/difficult to locate medication ... you should be able to get what you need when you're in Mexico. If you have health care insurance which will be paying the lion's share of the prescription cost ... I doubt your insurance company will allow a pharmacy to fill 6 or 7 prescriptions at the same time. My Blue Cross/Blue Shield in the USA does not allow it.

http://www.cdc.gov/malaria/travelers/drugs.html


----------



## AlanMexicali (Jun 1, 2011)

ADUANA rule for medicine brought into Mexico: "Medicamentos con receta médica, en las cantidades señaladas en la misma."

Reads: The quantity has to match the prescription.

A prescription for 6 months supply is legal or whatever months supply the prescription is for.


----------



## Longford (May 25, 2012)

AlanMexicali said:


> ADUANA rule for medicine brought into Mexico: "Medicamentos con receta médica, en las cantidades señaladas en la misma."
> 
> Reads: The quantity has to match the prescription.
> 
> A prescription for 6 months supply is legal or whatever months supply the prescription is for.


The regs are not uniformly applied. There have been probably a handful of discussions on web forums talking about medications being confiscated, tourists held for questioning and a couple jailed for having more than a 90 days supply in their possession. These are almost instances at land crossings. Rare, yes ... but they have happened.


----------



## AlanMexicali (Jun 1, 2011)

Longford said:


> The regs are not uniformly applied. There have been probably a handful of discussions on web forums talking about medications being confiscated, tourists held for questioning and a couple jailed for having more than a 90 days supply in their possession. These are almost instances at land crossings. Rare, yes ... but they have happened.


I doubt an ADUANA officer would question the rule if you simply printed it out and if a problem arises simply show them the 2011 rule. Easy.

REGLAS de Carácter General en Materia de Comercio Exterior para 2011. 

Capitulo 1.3

1.3.1. Para los efectos del artículo 76 del Reglamento, no será necesario inscribirse en el Padrón de Importadores, cuando se trate de la importación de las siguientes mercancías: 


XXI. Medicamentos con receta médica, en las cantidades señaladas en la misma.


----------



## Lorij (Jul 8, 2012)

Thanks for all the good advice, of course I am now google Dengue fever  because I am not familiar with this. To clarify some things, I am not staying at a hotel, my fiancé has a house there, but it does have window unit AC so no need to sleep with the windows open. As for the multiple prescription I have a copy of the prescription with me and I am flying United Airlines which I am being told by them will not be a problem with TSA at the airport, so I will not be going through customs check point prior to entering once I clear security in Atlanta  also to clear up another question your correct with BCBS of Alabama not paying for that many of the same rx at a time, however my doctor writes my albuterol rx for one that is on the $4 everyday list at Walmart- regardless of insurance price  that is how to get around that!


----------



## citlali (Mar 4, 2013)

google Oaxaca malaria, there is an article dated 2012 saying that there has ot been a case of malaria in the last 2 years in Oaxaca since we are now 2013 that means no case in the last 3 years . I would go without pills and check with a doctor in the area you will be living, there are more on top of things about their area but I would not worry too much.

I have heard of cases in CHiapas in the jungle and on the coast but I have friend living on the Oaxaca coast and they have not heard of anything.


----------



## Longford (May 25, 2012)

Lorij said:


> As for the multiple prescription I have a copy of the prescription with me and I am flying United Airlines which I am being told by them will not be a problem with TSA at the airport, so I will not be going through customs check point prior to entering once I clear security in Atlanta.


You will pass through Mexican Customs in Mexico City, or Oaxaca ... wherever your United/Continental flight first lands in Mexico ... unless the process (of where the inspection takes place) has changed.


----------



## Hound Dog (Jan 18, 2009)

[_QUOTE=Lorij;1175413]Hey guys need some advice. Went to my doctor today to get my new prescriptions for my asthma meds so I could get them filled before my trip. My doctor gave me 6 refills so I could fill them all at once before I leave on the 1st. He then told me I wanted me to pick up a rx for anti-malaria meds. I have never taken them before when I went, but he says according to the CDC the region of Oaxaca I'm going to is high risk. I'm going to Puerto Angel. MAnyo e have any thoughts on this? Or anyone in the area aware of an outbreak? Also we do not sleep with open windows nor do we use a mosquito net. Also I am nervous about taking any meds at all now because we are trying to conceive. Thanks in advance ![/QUOTE_]

Well, Lorij; I´m not doctor but I, a fellow Alabamian from Mobile, today live in Southern Mexico where I have lived for a number of years traveling often to the Oaxaca Coast incuding the Puerto Angel area and no one has ever suggested to me that my wife and I take Malaria pills - _EVER._. In fact. when we lived on Mobile Bay back in the 1970s, we had mosquitos that, if the winds shifted from off shore to off swamp, could eat you alive and leave enough for a snack for their friends. Whether on the Oaxaca or Chiapas or Yucatan Coasts or in our home in the Chiapas Highlands, we do sleep every night with our windows open and we never have any problems with mosquitoes and none of our Mexican doctors has ever suggested we take malaria pills no matter where we have traveled in Mexico or Central America. Yes dengue fever can be a problem on the Oaxaca Coast but also in the Oaxaca Highlands and there is no medicatio to prevent that so why worry about it.

As a non- medical professional, I can´t advise you what to do but I wouldn´t touch those anti-malarial pills under any circumstances personally. Years ago I traveled throughout much of Africa and the Indian Sub-Continent and they demanded I take those pills, which were and are reputedly ineffectual, which I did because without a certification that I had done so I couldn´t get visas to some of the countries I was visiting. Today that is no problem for you so skip it altogether.

By the way, Chris Matthews of MSNBC caught malaria in Africa as a Peace Corps volunteer years ago and it was, according to him, a terrible experience. If you are really concerned , you might e-mail him and ask him about his experiences and the medications he received back then.


----------



## AlanMexicali (Jun 1, 2011)

Lorij said:


> Thanks for all the good advice, of course I am now google Dengue fever  because I am not familiar with this. To clarify some things, I am not staying at a hotel, my fiancé has a house there, but it does have window unit AC so no need to sleep with the windows open. As for the multiple prescription I have a copy of the prescription with me and I am flying United Airlines which I am being told by them will not be a problem with TSA at the airport, so I will not be going through customs check point prior to entering once I clear security in Atlanta  also to clear up another question your correct with BCBS of Alabama not paying for that many of the same rx at a time, however my doctor writes my albuterol rx for one that is on the $4 everyday list at Walmart- regardless of insurance price  that is how to get around that!


When inside the international arrivals in an airport in Mexico you will once again be interviewed by immigration and customs. 

Albuterol here is cheap to buy at any pharmacy. It is called Salbutamol here and don´t buy it a Similares pharmacy even though it may be only $24.00 pesos but is a very weak dosage even thought it states 200 doses. Without a prescription at a discount reputable pharmacy it is about $165 to $185 pesos. The maximum price allowed printed on the box is $314.00 pesos [200 doses of 100 micrograms]


----------



## kito1 (Aug 4, 2012)

Lorij said:


> Hey guys need some advice. Went to my doctor today to get my new prescriptions for my asthma meds so I could get them filled before my trip. My doctor gave me 6 refills so I could fill them all at once before I leave on the 1st. He then told me I wanted me to pick up a rx for anti-malaria meds. I have never taken them before when I went, but he says according to the CDC the region of Oaxaca I'm going to is high risk. I'm going to Puerto Angel. MAnyo e have any thoughts on this? Or anyone in the area aware of an outbreak? Also we do not sleep with open windows nor do we use a mosquito net. Also I am nervous about taking any meds at all now because we are trying to conceive. Thanks in advance !


I had dengue 2 years ago, and let me tell you it was awful!! I thought I was going to die... I started feeling sick when I was headed back to the airport for a flight from Nicaragua to the USA. On the plane I was hallucinating my fever was so high and when I got to the USA I headed to the hospital. My fever was 104 and for the next few days I can't remember much of what went on. When all was said and done I felt like I had been run over by a bus. Every inch of my body ached. The bad thing is the doc told me is that a second case could be fatal so I have to wear that horrible DEET stuff now (all the time) if there is any chance of being exposed to dengue.

As for malaria, I have never heard of it being an issue in mexico, but some of the anti malaria drugs can be harsh!


----------



## TundraGreen (Jul 15, 2010)

kito1 said:


> I had dengue 2 years ago, and let me tell you it was awful!! I thought I was going to die... I started feeling sick when I was headed back to the airport for a flight from Nicaragua to the USA. On the plane I was hallucinating my fever was so high and when I got to the USA I headed to the hospital. My fever was 104 and for the next few days I can't remember much of what went on. When all was said and done I felt like I had been run over by a bus. Every inch of my body ached. The bad thing is the doc told me is that a second case could be fatal so I have to wear that horrible DEET stuff now (all the time) if there is any chance of being exposed to dengue.
> 
> As for malaria, I have never heard of it being an issue in mexico, but some of the anti malaria drugs can be harsh!


Sounds like you had a bad case of it. One of my colleagues at work had dengue and he didn't even take any time off from work. Every year in Guadalajara there are about 300 cases of the mild variety and 1 or 2 cases of the more serious hemorrhagic variety. It seems to be most common in Zapopan, the most upscale of the cities making up the Guadalajara Metropolitan Area.


----------



## citlali (Mar 4, 2013)

Several people I know in Tlaquepaque and in Ajijic had dengue 2 or 3 years ago and they went through hell as well. One woman is pretty dark and when I saw her she was white as a sheet, I asked her what was wrong and she said dengue..it can be pretty bad one of her relative had the hemorragic type so it was even worst , he almost died.
I do not know if it is correct but I heard that once you go it you need to really protect yourself as it is worst the second time and youare more prone to get it.


----------



## johnmex (Nov 30, 2010)

Lori, as the other people have already posted, I wouldn't worry about malaria, dengue is the problem here in GDL. But I won't ever get it either ... I take Plaquenil twice a day, everyday. That is 400 mg of Hidroxicloroquina, a common malaria medication. In my case is is not because of malaria, but because of the rheumatological condition I have. The only side effect that I have experienced was weight loss durning the first three months of taking it (I wish that would happen again!  ) My doctor also insists on regular eye exams as this medication may cause vision problems, which I have not experienced. 

That being said, only a good doctor could tell you if there could be pregnancy complications due to this class of medications. I also think that you are worrying too much about a very slim possibility.


----------



## mickisue1 (Mar 10, 2012)

A friend who lives on the coast in Ecuador has said, many times, that one of the biggest dangers with dengue is that taking either aspirin or ibuprofen (advil) can trigger hemorhagic fever, when you have dengue.

If you've been anywhere that dengue occurs, it's a good precaution to only take acetaminophen (tylenol) for ANY aches or fevers. I'm not certain about the other NSAIDS, like naproxin, but I"d avoid them to be safe, too.


----------

