Travel Safety: How to Avoid Malaria

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Do your travel plans include a trip to a tropical or subtropical place? Check to see if your destination puts you at risk of contracting malaria. If it does, you will need to take the right precautions to avoid falling victim to the illness during your holiday.

Is the area affected?

The NHS’ Fit for Travel guide offers comprehensive travel and health information for nearly any country you plan to visit. Most destinations have a section on Malaria; simply click on the icon to determine whether the disease is present in the country, and if it is, where.

You can take into consideration the time of year you will be travelling, how much time you plan to spend outdoors and what type of accommodation you choose, but generally if you are visiting a place that has any risk of malaria you should take strong precautions.

How do you get malaria?

Malaria is transmitted by mosquitoes. Avoiding bites entirely when travelling in an affected area would be the only way to guarantee you do not contract it.

Malaria is not contagious and cannot be transmitted through casual nor sexual contact with an infected person.

Best ways to avoid bites

To avoid mosquito bites you can:

• Choose accommodation with air conditioning and windows and doors that close properly, or one with full, undamaged screening on all windows and doors.
• Sleep under an intact mosquito netting that has been treated with insecticide.
• Apply insect repellent and reapply it religiously.
• Wear long, looser trousers and shirts with long sleeves. These are preferable to vests or shorts, as they offer an extra layer of protection. They will also help prevent sun burn.
• Use extra care at dusk and at night, as these are times when mosquitoes are actively looking to feed.



Try a layering approach:

During the day

• Apply sunscreen first.
• Apply insect repellent.
• Put on a long-sleeved shirt and trousers. You can even wear Permethrin-treated clothing or treat the clothing yourself. Permethrin is an insecticide that is meant to kill insects on contact.
• Reapply insect repellent and sun cream to exposed skin at four hour intervals throughout the day.



At night

• Shower
• Apply any moisturising creams you may use.
• Apply insect repellent.
• Put on long-sleeved pyjamas with trousers.



Use care to keep the mosquito net protecting your bed closed if you get up to use the bathroom.

Antimalarial medication

Even with the best of precautions it can be impossible to avoid a single bite. Mosquitoes are persistent and aggressive. They have a way of finding the only unprotected area of your skin (your eyelids, for example) and biting you there.

As stated by the NHS, there is currently no vaccine available for malaria. This is why in malaria endemic areas you may need to take antimalarial medication.

Antimalarial tablets are by prescription only with the exception of chloroquine or chloroquine with proguanil. No one type of antimalarial medication has been proven to work better than another. Some are taken a few days before travel whilst others must be started 2-3 weeks before.

It is important to note that no antimalarial tablet is 100%!e(MISSING)ffective, meaning that you must still make every effort to avoid mosquito bites.

Tips for taking your tablets

To make your treatment as effective as possible, take the tablets your doctor recommends for the area you are visiting. Start the tablets according to the prescribed schedule- this may be up to 10 days in advance of your departure. Tablets should be taken either after or with a meal. Click here to read more about symptoms to watch for. The NHS recommends contacting a doctor immediately if you develop any malaria-like symptoms during or after a trip to a malaria infected region.

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