BootsnAll Travel Community

Since I will be going to India in 2 weeks and will be there before and during the monsoon (yes I know it will be unbearably hot!!!) I am anticipating many mosquitos and the risk of malaria. Is malarone the best to take?
any horror stories? I dont want to take the one that makes me hallucinate badly.
thank you!!

What medication you take should really depend on what is recommended for the area.

There is a lot of talk about Malorone and other meds (e.g. here).

Malorone doesn't have a bad rep for causing hallucinations (that would be Lariam), but side-effects differ between people. In an ideal world, you could try the drug before going. In either case, it is important that you seek advise at your doc's/travel clinic.

i have been on mephloquene (i think it the same as lariam) and i was fine. met some poeple on the road having nightmares and stuff like this. but i think you can blame anything on lariam .
i was perfectly fine. felt moody in the beginning but as i said, good excuse.
you should start taking lariam one week before you enter the malarial zone.
talk to some doc before you leave.

A few years ago, my doctor put me on Lariam for a trip to South-East Asia. Upon swallowing it, I felt a terrible burning sensation in my stomach and ended up having stomach burns the entire week. Furthermore, only a few hours after taking it, I was struck with a very bad case of diarrhea. Since I had to start taking it a week prior to departure, I thought I had time to change my medicine and so I called my doctor 2 days before leaving. He refused to change it and said it was to early to know that Lariam was bad for me.

Two weeks into my trip, Lariam was ruining it for me (and I had a month to go!). After and incident of diarrhea on a bus with a driver that refused to stop for me...(yes, you can imagine the worst...) I decided to stop taking it.

My friend was on Lariam though and she had no problems.

On a trip to Panama, I tried Malarone and had no side effects whatsoever.

When I went to India, I was on Malarone again. It was in July, monsoon season. Still had no side effects. But our guide in Delhi laughed at us and said that there hadn't been malaria in Delhi for years... And I must admit that I didn't get a mosquitoe bite during my entire stay.

Personnally, I would tell you that every person is different. If you have enough time before you leave (and enough money...)ask your doctor if you can try your medicine before your trip. That's what I did for malarone.

Good Luck!