Anti-Malarial in Belize???

[Otter]

The ruin that I've heard is big and really nice is up toward Cayo. You turn off the Western Hwy and go up the Mountain Pine Ridge. It's pretty far on a mediocre road but the drive is beautiful and there are nice resorts up there to stay in.
Altun Ha is about 20 miles or so from the International Airport and that's the only one I've been to. It's pretty nice but they're renovating it with new cement to make it look "whole" again I guess.
There's also nice hiking at the Cockscomb Jaguar Reserve. If you get that far you're close to my neck of the woods. PM me if you want to hook up. Hank

I'll find out what the plans are and if I am up there, I will PM ya. I've always wanted to see why kind of plow they use on shrimp farms!

 

[Hank49]

I'll find out what the plans are and if I am up there, I will PM ya. I've always wanted to see why kind of plow they use on shrimp farms!

Ya Mon

 

[SueMermaid]

If it were just pain, it wouldn't be an issue. I have never been a big fan of meds and recent findings of over the counter meds having longer-term side effects just reinforced my distrust. With all due respect to very learned medical professionals, I think medicine is still largely art over science.

I see medicine as more like a game of trial and error. Let's give x number of people this stuff and see if it works. We make educated decisions, and the drugs are targeted and carefully developed under guidelines and all, but you don't really know the whole picture until you have a large sample of the medicated population to learn from. There will always be outliers. That's just biology.
Like you, Otter, I am always mindful of what I put into my body. I have to weigh the risk vs the benefits. I am not a fan of vaccines, for instance, and generally refuse them, but have taken the flu shot (after some research on the strain) because I got the flu last year and I wouldn't wish that on my worst enemy's rabid dog.

 

[peterbj7]

Malaria is one of the biggest killers in the world, so it wants to be taken very seriously indeed. It's also growing fast in geographical coverage as new areas become warm enough for malarial mosquitos to live & breed. They've even been found in England in recent years. But it's also growing in intensity, like many other diseases, as the bugs develop immunity to the drugs we use. Effective drugs are very area-specific, so you normally need to get them in or for the area you're visiting. And they only give partial protection anyway. The only sure way not to catch malaria is not to be bitten, and the best way to ensure that is to cover up.

It also stays with you for life. I caught malaria 30 years ago and still I can't give blood. The only question is whether symptoms recur.

That said, I live in San Pedro and go inland occasionally, and don't take any anti-malarial drugs. Nor have I ever heard of anyone catching dengue fever, which is said to be a bigger problem out here on the cayes.

 

[Otter]

I don't dispute the seriousness of malaria....its nasty stuff, but most deaths are in areas where treatment is unavailable. Also, according to the CDC, not all strains of Malaria are for life...in fact, most are not...but some are and some hide in your liver and you may be asymptomatic for years....so if you get sick later, you better have your blood checked for malaria quick as treatment is required fairly quickly.

 

[Dive-aholic]

I just spoke to the coworker I mentioned in my earlier post. Like I said, he's been to Belize a few times and he's never taken the anti malaria meds. He says it's not prevalent on the cayes or even in the natural jungles. The place to worry about it is the cities. And even there, the bigger concern is dengue, which is not protected by the anti malaria meds. Just another opinion to add.

I think it might be safe to see what happens. You should be stateside again before you need treatment if that comes up.