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How will you protect yourself as well as your family against malaria this summer in the Kruger Park?

My wife picked up P.Falciparum in May 2003. Anyone else?

Father-In-Law picked up Malaria...They stayed an hours drive from Phalaborwa gate on a farm.

Not something you want to have...

I would recommend anybody to make sure they take the recommended tablets for malaria before visiting the park.

Rather safe then sorry.

Any stats on how many visitors to the park do actually ontract malaria? Is it more prolific in some areas than others? With the side effects of prophylaxis one is tempted to give them a miss!

My wife either got it from Lower Sabie or Letaba.

My son was also hit by P.Falciparum a few years ago. He was 11 years old at the time and we were very worried ! We did take profilactic drugs, but gave him childrens dosage which perhaps wasn't enough for this rather well built 11 year old ?
He wasn't too sick though - it was diagnosed very early. We were in Sirheni - quite a "wild" place compared to bigger camps, though I don't think the mozzies would know the difference !!

Hi all.....

I have been an avid kruger visitor since I was a little girl and I am now taking my two year old on her very first visit. We are going to Shingwedzi for a weekend in March. I phoned the malaria hotline and they recommended Chlorquin Syrup. Has anybody taken this syrup and does it work? Are there any side effects? Or would it be wise to rather just use preventative measures so she won't get bitten?

Laine, I would suggest that you rather use preventative measures. I personally don't like the idea of giving such a young child prophylactics. You only really need to protect yourself early in the morning and in the evening. We bought special mosquito repellant soap (lemongrass and something else - will ask my SO if he remembers) which we used when we showered and you can also buy some Tabard lotion. If you'd prefer to take absolutely no chances then perhaps you should phone your GP and ask about the side effects

It is very risky to take a child of that age. They are very busy and enjoy running around etc. I have decided that I will only take my little one with again as soon as she will be able to tell me exactly what the matter is when she is not feeling well.

After my wife's malaria ordeal we took the little one for a blood test almost always when she was feverish and having a bit of bronchitis etc. which were all symptoms of malaria with babies and which coincidently are normal for babies who are teething or allergic.

It was hell! To try not to cry when your baby had a needle stuck in her arm to draw blood was very tough. To be honest: I would not take that chance. We used all the preventitive measures we could: Netting, repellant, coils and long sleeves at night and my wife still got bitten and infected.

We reckon it happened when she was in the bathroom after a shower. Think twice...

As mentioned prophylaxis (Anti-malaria tablets) is not the end-all-and-be-all. Preventative measures in it self may also not be effective in protecting the little one.

It might also be good to contact a SAA Netcare Travel clinic for advice. They are serviced and advised by doctors who are members of the SA Society of Travel Medicine. I attended a joint conference with the SASTM in 2003 where they talked about their research on malaria, suggested treatments, resistance of the parasite to treatment etc. and they are quite clued up. The link below list a number of Travel clinics.

Travel Clinic

Thank you all for your feedback. Much appreciated. I will go down all the avenues that were recommended to me and perhaps have a chat with my pediatrician. If he suggests its a bad idea then i will just have to wait a little while longer to visit my favourite place on earth.

The last time I was there I had the "privilege" of being caught in the midst of the 2000 floods. We were staying at Pretoriuskop and arrived at Skukuza the morning after the Sabie came down. It was mind blowing to see the damage Nature can cause. As we were returning to Pretoriuskop we almost missed the chance to drive over the last bridge back before it to was washed away. We had just started our 10 day holiday and managed to get out of Numbi gate drive around and reroute back in at Orpen. Our accomodation at Lower Sabie was obviously cancelled but hats off to the Kruger Staff who although were going through their own personal turmoil still managed to remain professional. They rebooked us at Tamboti tented camp which was awesome as the Timbavati was coming down. We managed to continue our holiday to Letaba and then onto Shingwedzi. To see the Shingwedzi River come down in flood was also mindblowing as well as sitting on the Olifants bridge watching the angry river with all the debris.

I have to say that in all my years of going to the kruger and all the other game reserves in Africa...(name any camp and i have possibly used the toilet there....hee hee) this has to be one of the most unforgetable experiences.

Hi DinkyBird

Malaria is indeed a problem in the KNP and we take regular measures (spraying units, education campaigns, mosquito screens etc) to try and protect people from this.
According to our GP here in Skukuza, Dr Ferreira, relatively few people have been infected this wet season. Unfortunately, it is difficult for us to get statistics of tourists getting malaria in the KNP as most only go to the doctor once they have left the KNP.
Most of the cases have been our staff members who work outside (eg hut attendants, rangers, security staff etc) at night.

My advice - and the KNP policy for that matter - is to visit your GP and take all the precautions he/she advises. You can also visit the travel medicine website www.meditravel.co.za.

Hope this helps.

Kind regards
KNP Spokesman

After a very bad experience with Larium, I have taken Malarone on each trip to the park. It gave me no side-effects (actually, listed potential side-effects from it are very slight anyway) and does not affect your skins reaction to sunlight like some of the antibiotic types do. I don't know if it's suitable for children, but the other nice thing about it is that you only need to start taking in 24 hours before visiting a malarial area and one tab a day each day until you have been out of the area for 7 days.

Big drawback, it's expensive! Don't know how much in SA, but a pack of 12 tablets cost nearly £40. With 8 days in the KNP and 6 in highly malarial Mozambique for 2 of us, it did work out to be very pricy. More than worth it, in my opinion for the lack of side effects!

One other point is that (someone may have mentioned it before), you won't get malaria if you don't get bitten. Taking anti-malarial medication and getting bitten means you may still get the disease, but you're less likely to.

A friend of mine who lives in Mozambique tells me that she cannot afford to take anti malarials all the time - apart from that none of them are designed to be taken long term - and she, her husband and her son have all had malaria since moving to Moz in September. However, the treatment for it is the same medication you take to prevent it. She tells me that one of the other SA ex-pats in the town she's living in has had malaria 17 times (guess that's what you get when you live near a swamp!). I don't think I could live like that....

We're lucky - none of us have had a bad reaction to Mefliam so we use that. Rather safe than sorry!

I think its a must but I know a couple of people who refuse to take anti-malaria as they feel the medicine is extremely bad for you.
The medication I took had to be taken daily, started week before the trip commenced and for a week after. I never had any side effects really, although one time I took it one an empty stomach and felt nauseas for a while after.