Disclaimer. Always seek medical advice before you travel. We are not medics and can not give you up to date accurate advice on health matters.
Malaria is a disease that you have to take into account when planning a gap year trip or adventure. It’s a parasite spread by mosquitos. A single bite is enough to infect you, and it can be deadly.
The plasmodium parasites responsible for causing malaria are injected into the blood stream when a mosquito carrying them bites the skin. From there the parasites travel to the liver where they multiply before spreading out into the blood vessels where they invade red blood cells. Every so often a red blood cell will burst releasing more parasites and a cloud of toxins into the bloodstream. It’s when these infected blood cells burst that the person infected will feel the symptoms of malaria; a high fever and bouts of chills and sweating.
Malaria kills by destroying too many red blood cells, inhibiting the body’s ability to transport oxygen to vital organs, which eventually leads to organ failure. Or, in rare cases, the disease can cause the small blood vessels in the brain to become blocked, resulting in strokes, seizures, brain damage and death.
Even a relatively mild case of malaria which doesn’t kill you, it has the potential to ruin your trip, leaving you weak, ill and bed bound for a long time.
Theoretically, wherever you find mosquitos there is a risk of malaria, but in reality you’re only really indanger in tropical areas where the species of mosquito that carry the parasites are prevalent; Latin America, Africa, and areas of southern Asia.Be aware of the risk level in the region you’re travelling in.
If you are planning on visiting a danger zone be sure to consider the available malaria prevention drugs. They’re tablets that can be prescribed by a doctor, to be taken before, during & after your visit to a danger zone.
It’s also essential to take other measures to protect yourself in these regions. You should use insect repellent on any exposed areas of skin, and sleep under a chemically treated mosquito net (without any holes in it!).
It’s also worth asking about vaccinations that you may need to travel to certain regions while you’re discussing anti-malarial drugs with a doctor, and while you’re getting all of that sorted, consider purchasing some over-the counter medications that you may need (such as painkillers, motion sickness medication, pills to stop diarrhoea and laxatives to deal with constipation) which may be difficult to procure while you’re travelling.
Speaking as someone who’s done my fair share of travelling, at some point you will almost certainly find yourself in a situation where you’re glad that you thought to pack a variety of medicines!
If you notice any malaria-like symptoms, such as a headache, fever, muscle pains, sweats, chills or vomiting, at any time up to a year after you return from your trip, you should seek immediate medical attention, and be sure to inform your doctor that you’ve been out of the country.
