Lonely Planet™ · Thorn Tree Forum · 2020

Traveling PNG while pregnant?

Country forums / Pacific Islands & Papua New Guinea / Papua New Guinea

Hey all

I think this sounds a little nuts (I assume so because I couldn't find any other posts around it) but what are some thoughts around traveling PNG while pregnant? My husband and I have 3 weeks off in November and are looking for a last hurrah before baby. I'll be in my second trimester so should be feeling pretty ok. I'm mostly worried about mosquitos as the raining season will be starting and I don't want to take anti-malaria nor do I want to get malaria (tried that, it was terrible). Are there specific places to avoid (we have zero plan at the moment)?

I'm also curious around the general comfort level. I assume we'll be taking a mix of public transportation and flights. Are the roads bad in that you're sour by the end of the trip or just unnerved? I also assume we'll spend at least half out time in home-stays. Is this usually just a than a thin mattress on the floor? Do they usually offer mosquito nets?

I guess I should say we're no strangers to difficult travel but I also don't want to spend our three week trip completely miserable.

Thanks for your thoughts!

I had never been in Papua New Guinea, but considering that you are pregnant I would be more worried about getting the Zika Virus than anything else.

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Ahhhh... Darnit! We'd ruled out anywhere sound of the US but I didn't realize it is now also in PNG.... Back to the drawing board....

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Zika is now spreading to a lot of countries, unfortunately. World Map of Zika. It just shows infected countries, but not infected areas in those countries.

What you might want to look at is somewhere at relatively high elevation, where mosquitoes aren't present. For example, high elevation South America, where you could fly in to a city in the Andes & never go below a mosquito-friendly elevation.

Don't forget that malaria in a pregnant woman is a medical emergency. There is a higher risk of complications or even death. Miscarriage, and premature birth are also possible. So you also want to avoid malaria areas unless you are willing to take an antimalarial.

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There was an outbreak of Dengue Fever in the national capital district earlier this year, the first cases being among people in and from in the NCD who had not been out of the country. Dengue is nastier than malaria.

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