Filed under: Health tips
Having been a bit slow on health tips, I’ve decided to do a post on things I’ve found useful in preventing malaria.
One obvious one is to buy a net. I had a lifesystems net for my last trip, which was pretty good and only about £15 so not bad value. It was easy to fasten to places both as a box net and as a wedge shape where only two corners are supported. I also bought a hanging kit, which was beyond useless as the suckers in it didn’t work. It would have been useful to have them, but I managed without, just using a bit of ingenuity to find high enough places to hang the net – its not essential the hanging kit but useful if you get one that works.
Secondly, as repellent I used some lifesystem roll on, which was ok but not brilliant, but also Geranium Oil, which I have found is far and away the most effective repellent. You can get it from holland and barret for about £5 a pot, which is expensive, but definitely worth it. I put some on sweatbands and a handkerchief near me and a drop on my feet, chest and neck and then just leave the bottle open to gradually emit its fragrance. It works very well on the first night spent somewhere, ad is even more effective if you are staying in a room for several days on the bounce as you can leave the bottle open and I found there was never a mosy in within sight or sound. I’m told citronella is similarly effective, but I have never tried it myself, but would get a bottle for my next trip to try out.
Third thing is, if you are in a hotel with a fan, turn it on. I’m not sure how this works, but the mosies don’t seem to like windy places – I remember a hotel owner on Lamu telling me that where he stayed he was generally safe from malaria because the sea breeze stopped the moises coming to him. Again when I have had the fan on, it has always kept the mosies away, as well as keeping me cool through the night.
As for drugs, I didn’t use any for this trip – malerone was too expensive I had been told not that effective, especially if you miss a day or two here and there, and the other treatments all have possible side effects. I had been told of a homeopathy treatment and took that, which was a little pill once a day and a booster twice a week. Many people don’t like ‘alternative’ therapies, which is fair enough, but homeopathy had helped me with other things in life so I decided to try it out and it worked.
For now that’s all the advice I can think of, hope it helps – definitely did for me as I remained malaria free for my whole trip.
