Malaria Pills

[Cabbage]

I'm headed to the 'stan in a few months and the corpman gave some malaria pills. I heard they mess you up pretty bad (nightmares, ect).

Anyone take them?

 

[skidkid]

We got Dcicyclene (sp). No nightmares but you need to take them with food and eat some yogurt or something the antibiotics will kill all the "good" bacteria in your intestines.

 

[squorch2]

I wouldn't say nightmares, just really vivid and fvcked up dreams. Beats malaria though.

 

[AJB37]

I took them two separate times, I don't remember the exact pill, but I had no problems.

 

[Crowbar]

I took them before going to Africa and while we had evacuees onboard. No problems from the pills.

Edit: This was several years ago, I guess it's the same thing you would get now.

 

[bluesig1]

I have heard about depression, crazy dreams and nasuea. You might want to check this site for people who listed their side effects with the pills.
http://askapatient.com/viewrating.asp?drug=19591&name=LARIAM

But of course not everyone suffers side effects of drugs. So you have to ask yourself: Do you feel lucky? Well do you?

Edit-
You can't fly after taking Lariam, so I think they give Doxycycline. http://www.medicinenet.com/doxycycline/article.htm . Not as harsh.

 

[Crowbar]

^When we were taking them, I had never heard of any side effects and nobody I worked with ever mentioned anything unusual. We stopped taking them when a batch got recalled, and none of us got malaria. We did have somebody from another shop come down with "Mystery Ailment" and get quarantined for several days but he eventually recovered. He was out doing a lot of work with the evacuees so he might have just decided to make out with the wrong person.

 

[HooverPilot]

I've taken them with no ill effects. No one else on the det reported any problems either. Good luck!

 

[Uncle Fester]

If you're on flight status, you'll get Doxycycline, which you have to take every day, but don't get the effed-up dreams. Meflaquin is once-a-week, but give you the crazy dreams.

I was kinda disappointed to get Doxy when I went to the Bouti. I heard the dreams people got were wicked cool.

 

[Flash]

I took the Mefloquine/Lariam and had no ill effects.

I went to Africa a few years ago and when I got my meds at Bethesda I got a little brief from a doc who said he specialized in tropical diseases. He said they had 3 malaira meds at the hospital, the Mefloquine has been around for a while and is pretty cheap, the other two were newer and cost a lot more. It was something like $60 vs about $300. Probably why they still give the Mefloquine to most.

 

[H20man]

I took the Doxycycline when I was in Djibouti with MSC... a relative of Tetracycline... your everyday acne medicine

 

[villanelle]

I took Lariam for a trip to Costa Rica. No weird dreams, but it after a few doses, I started having some mild vertigo (which I assume is why they won't let aviators take it). Since I was planning on diving, I didn't want to risk it, especially because there were almost no mosquitos, so I stopped taking it.

Husband was given a Doxycycline and had no side effects at all, fun or otherwise.

 

[Uncle Fester]

Oh, and Doxy makes you very light-sensitive. One day I went out without my sunglasses and by lunchtime I was down with the worst headache of my life. Went away within 15 minutes once I went back to my CLU and hid under the blankets.

 

[zippy]

Oh, and Doxy makes you very light-sensitive. One day I went out without my sunglasses and by lunchtime I was down with the worst headache of my life. Went away within 15 minutes once I went back to my CLU and hid under the blankets.

That happened to me there too...

Myself and a couple other people had messed up dreams and got sick on Doxy sometimes (Dreams of demons and waking up to go puke in the middle of the night... and not from Cantina or Bitter end). I found that taking it earlier in the day instead of just before bed and on a full stomach worked the best for me.

 

[Twitterpate03]

Took the once a week one for a year in Djibouti.

Take them with food-have no problems.

And like many....I did have some VERY VIVID dreams too.

Only problem I really had was REMEMBERING to take them once a week.