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Rod,
On Thu, 26 Sep 1996, troppo wrote:
> All the locals don't take anything. The Peace Core girls we met did not
> use any medication for mararia, despite being required to. I would not
> take Doxy again, on principle, as by using antibiotics indiscriminately,
> we are breeding super bugs which are immune to there effects.
You are correct that "locals" usually do not take malaria prophylaxis. In
part this is because they have had prior infections and develop some
limited immunity to many strains of the parasite.
The question of field workers (people visiting/working) in malarial areas
for months or years, is controversial. Risk of reaction v. infection. Some
choose to tough it out; the son of a colleague, who while living in PNG,
had six episodes of malaria in two years, damn near died from one bout.
Most tourists don't want to risk being sick while paying $250+/day and
balance this against the risk of a reaction from a 10 day drug exposure. I
think its worth the risk. I have seen tourists die of malaria.
Tetracycline resistance is pretty world wide in bacteria. Quinolone
resistance is just beginning to spread. Another plus for doxy in my book.
*******************************************************************
* Peter Heseltine, M.D., F.A.C.P. *
* Professor of Medicine *
* University of Southern California LAC+USC Medical Center *
* Tel: 213/226-6705 1200 North State Street *
* Fax: 213/226-2479 Los Angeles, CA 90033-1084 *
* Eml: heseltin@hs*.us*.ed* USA *
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