Doxycycline or Malarone

I was in West Africa last year for 65 days. I started taking savarine and I changed to malarone due to its higher efficiency, I didn't want to take any risk. But after have taken the 12 pills (1 box) of malarone I was forced to change again to savarine because I couldn't afford for more malarone pills. So I think it depends how long are you going to take the pills.

Concerning side effects I think savarine made me lose some of my hair and malarone doesn't allow me to sleep when I took it by night. I know that doxycline has more side effects than malarone but I didn't test it.

By other hand, South America has less virulent malaria than West Africa, so may be it's not necessary for you to expense too much. Actually I am from and I live in South America and I have never took malaria pills before my trip to Africa.

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Hey Dom and Bex,

I've had very good luck with doxycycline--in Borneo, Sumatra, and the Amazon region. Another very positive aspect of the drug is that it also helps protect against bacterial infections. While I haven't had any trouble, some people get sunburned easier, and also, taking antibiotics for long periods of time isn't always a great idea.

Just don't do larium, unless you enjoy vivid, scary dreams.

A helpful link:
http://www.cdc.gov/travel/malariadrugs.htm

Happy trails!

poz

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