malaria

any opinions on necessity of malaria tablets in the Solomons? Most info says to take them but curious as to people's experiences/views about side effects etc.

We never take anti malarials because of the side effects. As divers, Larium is not recommended & I'm allergic to Doxycycline.

We visit Uepi Island Resort each year, and after more than a dozen trips we've had no problem. Uepi appears not to have malaria - probably because there's no fresh water pools and also because the population (guests and staff) are not there for long periods at a time.

I did catch cerebral malaria while staying in Honiara many years ago, but it was quickly cured with appropriate medication.

You should be guided by common sense and your medical practitioner. If you decide not to take medication, take lots of bug spray - and use it often. Don't forget that mozzies bite toes, behind ears etc

Unlike #1, I use Lariam in Solomons, as I'm not a diver, and I spend most of my time in villages on Malaita, including East Kwaio, or in Honiara. All my friends out there suffer regularly from malaria, every family I know has lost a member or two to malaria, and one of my expat acquaintances came down with cerebral malaria and had to be flown to Australia for the "cure". There wasn't enough medicine available where he was on Malaita at the time. But I take it because I'm just a frequent visitor so therefore have not built up any immunity at all to even the mildest dose to the disease. And even taking Lariam or Doxycycline is no guarantee that you won't get it, so your best bet if you don't want to take anything is a good mossie net and plenty of Deet bug spray.

I'm lucky in that I don't suffer too many side effects from Lariam, other than the odd extreme nightmare, some interrupted sleep, and an occasional crying jag. Doxy upsets my stomach and I burn for more easily on it.

I suggest you look at my 2 posts on this thread

I always use doxycycline if in Solomon Islands less than 3 months. It has the added advantage of protecting from bacterial infections as well. It has helped me recover from cellulitis in my leg while in the Lau Lagoon, until I could get heavy duty antibiotics in Honiara, and recently protected me from a very bad toothache until after I had access to a dentist. If you are taking it for more than a couple of weeks, though, take some acidophilus tablets with you (not the powder which you have to keep in the fridge, though) - yoghurt is a bit hard to get in Solomon Islands.

Meanwhile, can anyone tell me how to paste URLs into the box so I don't have to type the whole thing?

#3 what I do is open the desired webpage. I then right click on the address -- you should see a cut, copy, paste menu pop up. I then click on 'copy'.

When I enter a message I first click on the first http button then right click in the space for entering the URL. A window should again pop up with the cut copy paste options again. I click on 'paste' and the job is done.

An alternative to Doxy and Lariam is Chloroquine, I get the sunburn/rash from Doxycycline and too many people I know have had an extreme reaction to Lariam that I don't want to risk it. My wife is a S.Ier and she won't go past Chloroquine as having the least risk of side effects balanced against protection. It is an "older" medication and some doctors in Australia seem to dislike prescribing it but an easy and more efficient way of getting it is to wait until you get to the Solomons and pick some up at the chemist, it's available over the counter there unlike here where you have to pay for a doctors consultation to get a script then pay to get the tablets. I bought enough tablets for 12 weeks for $3 Solomon about .45 cents Aus. Also if I'm going for a stay of more than about 5 weeks I take my anti malaria meds for a fortnight then stop and only take them if I get savaged by mosquitos. Remember the meds don't stop you "getting" malaria they stop it becoming established after the mossie gives it to you. Having said all that Ozziegiraffe is right on about Doxy having the added advantage of giving low level protection against a range of other things.

Bhain,
I have taken more chloroquine for malaria while living in Solomon Islands than I would like to remember, and I DO NOT recommend it either as a curative or prophylaxis.
Most Solomon malaraia parasites are now chloroquine-resistant. My last (11th) dose of malaria was chloroquine-resistant falciparum (cerebral malaria) and the matron at the school where I was working was away for the first two days I was taking chloroquin. I was VERY sick. When Matron returned she gave me quinine, and I got better quickly (though I had tinnitus for days after).
The upside of that is I think it has conferred on me a degree of immunity - I lived there for 11 months in 2004, and never caught malaria.
The next downside of using chloroquine is that it makes it hard to read the slides if you do get it. (I was taking it as prophylaxis the first two times I caught it in 1991, and it was very hard to identify).
As for side effects, they are far worse than doxy, though some are not immediately obvious. First, if you take it over a long period of time, it can cause retina damage, and lead to blindness. Second, we always said the cure was worse than the disease - nausea, headaches, etc, but worst of all nghtmares and insomnia. I had to get a prescription for Valium, as I didn't sleep for a week each time I was dosed with it for 3 days after I caught malaria. (Not good when you are teaching in a boarding school).