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Stephanieann

May 11, 2004, 10:11 AM

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preventative medicine

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Hello I read somewhere recently about trouble with Typhoid and Malaria in rural areas in Jalisco State. My family and I will be in that area next month can you tell me if there is antimalaria or typhoid medication readily available in Mexico pharmacies or should I get it before I leave. Reason is vaccines here were quoted to me to be around $50.00 ea per person thats $400.00 I'd like to spend elsewhere any advise? What about other things I should prepare for like poison oak etc. Any help would be appreciated will be going to my doctor this afternoon so any quick answers will sure help me. Thanks

Kip

May 11, 2004, 10:37 AM

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Re: [Kip] preventative medicine

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I'll try again! I read an article posted on a Honduran forum that talked about the newest thing for malaria. It's a Chinese herbal drug called Artemisinin. It's made from ginghaosu or sweet wormwood. The article sounded pretty promising so I pulled it up on Google and there it was! Why I hadn't heard about it before I don't know, but it sounds like something worth looking into.

Kip
kip

Stephanieann

May 11, 2004, 10:41 AM

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Re: [Kip] preventative medicine

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Thanks going to google now to check it out.

Don

May 11, 2004, 11:09 AM

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Re: [Stephanieann] preventative medicine

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What rural areas of Jalisco State are you talking about?

(This post was edited by Don on May 11, 2004, 11:10 AM)

lmaxine

May 11, 2004, 12:03 PM

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Re: [Stephanieann] preventative medicine

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My doctor ( an MD), who is also a homeopath, gave me a homeop. medicine to take when I came down with typhoid and brucellosis 2 years ago. I felt better in 3 days. He urged me to trust him and I did. I wanted to get the antibiotic people usually take for that, but he said the homeop. remedy works better, that Mexican homeopaths have a lot of experience with such diseases, and that unlike the Rx, would have no "sequellas."
I have found that using homeopathic remedies, easily available in Mexico, have handled everything that's come up for me. Except for gum abscess, it's been years since I have taken any antibiotic or other Rx.
"He upon whose heart the dust of Mexico has lain will find no peace in any other land." Malcolm Lowry

Rolly

May 11, 2004, 12:32 PM

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Re: [Kip] preventative medicine

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The New York Times has an article on that new malaria drug: http://www.nytimes.com/...0/health/10MALA.html

It looks like it will a while before it is in common use, and it will be more expensive than the drugs used today.

The really scary part is the report that chloroquine, the most widely used malaria drug, has largely lost is effectiveness. One more disease that has become drug-resistant.

Rolly Pirate

E-visit me http://Rollybrook.com
On Facebook as Rolly Brook

(This post was edited by Rolly on May 11, 2004, 7:56 PM)

sfmacaws

May 11, 2004, 1:13 PM

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Re: [Rolly] preventative medicine

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I haven't read the NYTimes article, I refuse to register, but we take Chloroquine weekly. It is widely available in pharmacies in the south of Mexico although I could not find it in some northern cities. My doctor told me that it is ineffective with some new strains of malaria. He did some research and said that the areas we were going, all of Mexico and Belize, still had the strain that Chloroquine worked on. He said if we were going into S America, particularly in the Amazon basin, we couldn't take it. The current alternative sounds so awful that I'm pretty sure I'd rely on Deet and luck instead. It causes psychosis in quite a few people who take it, can't remember the name but it is something like Lorium.

I don't like the ear ringing that I get from the chloroquine but I can live with it. I use Deet constantly but if I forget to spray up one time, I get bit. It's my sweet personality I guess ;) I've also noticed that Deet doesn't work so well on no-see-ums and other biting flies.

Jonna - Mérida, Yucatán

May 11, 2004, 10:05 PM

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Re: [Kip] preventative medicine

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Stephanieann writes:
....can you tell me if there is antimalaria or typhoid medication readily available in Mexico pharmacies or should I get it before I leave....

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Kip writes:
I.... I read an article posted on a Honduran forum that talked about the newest thing for malaria. It's a Chinese herbal drug called Artemisinin....

1. Artemisinin is not currently considered to be of any value as prophylactic treatment to prevent malaria. It is used in some areas and under investigation in others as a treatment for cases of malaria once the Plasmodium infection has occurred.

2. There are a number of areas which haven't been thoroughly investigated with regards to the safety of Artemisinin, such as its effects on the fetus during the first trimester of pregnancy. A serious illness in itself, malaria is of even greater concern during pregnancy, so the additional concerns about the possible effects of Artemisinin on the unborn fetus may be somewhat tempered, a consideration that the pregnant woman and her treater will have to work through. Use of Artemisinin as a prophylactic treatment is well outside of this risk/benefit balance, however.

May 11, 2004, 10:45 PM

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Re: [Stephanieann] preventative medicine

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Stephanieann writes:
....I read somewhere recently about trouble with Typhoid and Malaria in rural areas in Jalisco State....

The US CDC's 2003-2004 Yellow Book (Health Information for International Travel) defines the Malaria risk area for the state of Jalisco more specifically as rural areas "...in (the) mountainous northern area only."

With regards to the chloroquine resistance that several posters have commented on, public health authorities, including the US CDC, are in agreement that chlorquine resistance isn't yet a consideration for Mexico. In areas where chloroquine resistance is a consideration, there are a number of options for chemoprophylaxis including the Larium (mefloquine) mentioned by another poster. Each of the treatments has specific elevated risks which is why in the US they're prescription medications.

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Reason is vaccines here were quoted to me to be around $50.00 ea per person thats $400.00 I'd like to spend elsewhere any advise?

Hopefully by now you've gotten some personal health and risk profile specific advice from your physician, as at least in the case of typhoid vaccinations there's an interesting twist to the cost issue. Not only are the vaccines of less than 100% effective in preventing typhoid infections, but of the two available vaccines in the US (the live attenuated virus oral preparation and the capsular polysaccharide injection) have different dosing regimes (you only need one injection, but have to take a total of 4 capsules 48 hour apart, with the capsules requiring refrigeration until use), different frequencies and types of side effects (more fever from one, more headaches from the other), and the kicker if you're concerned about costs, widely differing requirements for booster treatments (2 years for the injection, 5 for the capsules).