Preventive Medicine or shots for Roatan Trip ?

[fraff2]

Hello all,

My son and I are going to travel from US (NJ) to Roatan in November. While I know nothing is "required" but should I get any type of Malaria and/or Hepatitis A/B preventative medicine before I go ?

 

[pword]

Here is a link to what the U.S. CDC recommends, to err on the side of caution.

http://wwwn.cdc.gov/travel/destinationHonduras.aspx

 

[Dave Zimmerly]

Yes. Not only those but make sure you have your tetanus up-to-date as well.

Dave (aka "Squirt")

 

[k8brandt]

Ditto, what Pword said. Get the shots, this way you are covered for everything and everywhere. Don't forget your bug repellent.

 

[ranpar01]

I'm heading to Roatan in December and will most likely take Aralen for anti-malaria, but the side-effects of nausea and vomitting don't sound fun. Anyone have a bad experience from Aralen or know what % of people have adverse affects?

Also, most mosquito repelents have Deet and the active ingredient and I read that it was toxic for the reef. Just curious if anyone knows of an effective reef friendly alternative?

Randy

 

[merxlin]

Hello all,

My son and I are going to travel from US (NJ) to Roatan in November. While I know nothing is "required" but should I get any type of Malaria and/or Hepatitis A/B preventative medicine before I go ?

I just got back from a Roatan trip (Anthony's key resort) in August. Although the CDC recommends anti malarial drugs, Hep prevention, etc, I would use some caution. Will you be traveling away from your resort, heading inland on the island, or wandering through the towns? If not, you only have a very slight chance of contracting any of the diseases.

We had a group of 20 and most of us took a variety of Malaria meds. Of those of us that did, we had one guy have a mild reaction to the meds, and one (my wife) who had a severe reaction to Malarone. High anxiety, nerve tingling, headaches, numbness, etc that was so severe we took her to an ER when we got home. Your timing is good, as she had a recurrence of the symptoms just last night, after 5 weeks home, and after being symptom free for 3 weeks. I took the same meds and had no issues what so ever. On a previous trip, one of our instructors also had a bad reaction to Malarone.

We also used Cactus Juice religiously and still got bit up pretty good from the no see ums (I never saw a mosquito). We had Deet, but were trying not to use it. In hindsight I wish we had. Other than the slight itching though I have been attacked worse in Yosemite than I was here.

The owner of our LDS has been to Roatan 7-8 times and has never taken meds, and has always been fine.

I posted a poll on this but it was lost in the great crash. IIRC, it was about 70% in favor of taking the meds. My suggestion would be to get a trial prescription and make sure you are Ok with it well in advance of your trip.

Just my experiences. I'm sure others will have other opinions.

PS- Check with your prescribing doctor about the side affects. I was shocked when we went through all the ones listed, even with the very small rate of occurrence for most of them.

 

[thumbsplitter]

I started a similar post recently about my upcoming trip to Utila: http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/bay-islands/200549-question-utila-divers.html


With regards to Merxlin’s post: I believe Chloroquine is the recommended anti-malarial for the Bay Islands. My understanding is that very few people have side effects on it and it is not contraindicated for diving (as some other anti-malarial drugs are).



--Thumbsplitter

 

[merxlin]

With regards to Merxlin’s post: I believe Chloroquine is the recommended anti-malarial for the Bay Islands. My understanding is that very few people have side effects on it and it is not contraindicated for diving (as some other anti-malarial drugs are).--Thumbsplitter

You are correct. We were recommended Malarone because of the more benign side effects compared to Chloroquine. Shows what even the MD's know. My point was not to discount the side effects based on the low occurrence. They may not happen often, but they do happen. BTW, my wife is a non-diver, so diving had no effect on the meds.

 

[traciedee]

We did the whole shebang of shots and pills recommended by the cdc. Just took my first chloroquine pill two days ago and neither my husband or I had any side effects at all. I'm 45 and I guess the older I get, I find myself leaning towards the 'better safe than sorry' path. Malaria does not sound like a fun thing to get.

 

[merxlin]

Also, Roatan was not on the CDC list until recently. I don't know if there was an increase in occurrences, or what happened to make the change, but that was one reason we decided to do the prevention.