“Africa”-the word evokes the following thoughts-“undiscovered, unexplored, hauntingly beautiful, wild, pristine beauty, ……” and I could go on. Staying in Cairo, Egypt, is the right time to explore the African continent-accessibility and proximity being the prime reasons. Since hubby had to go to South Africa for a conference, we decided to combine a trip to South Africa with a desert adventure trip to the neighboring Namibia. But alas! as they say “Best Laid Plans of Men and Mice often go Astray”-the factor contributing to the “astray” factor was my South Africa visa-it could not be processed in time though the Namibian visa was already in place.
Also, planning a trip from Cairo, Egypt has its own unique set of “issues” as I discovered-surprisingly those relating to vaccinations and getting the correct anti-malarial tablets!
When traveling to the African continent, health issues are the foremost priority-every possible vaccination is recommended! Though the suggested vaccines are only “guidelines”, some countries will not allow entry without proof of vaccination. Of course, coming from India, our immune systems are supposedly better developed, but if you are the “ultra-cautious” kind like me, then you will probably want to immunize yourself with every available vaccine! Also, a sore arm is a small price to pay for peace of mind….or so I thought before I started researching.
For Namibia and South Africa, the vaccines that are “recommended” are Hepatitis A, yellow fever, polio and tetanus booster shots, typhoid and rabies as well. Plus malaria prophylactics have to be taken. Malaria is transmitted by mosquitoes and to add to the woes, the mosquitoes in certain well-traveled areas such as Namibia have become immune to the milder versions of the anti-malarial tablets such as the chloroquine and proguanil combination -the alternative is to take larium that contains mefloquine, but the side effects include nausea, dizziness, difficulty sleeping, anxiety, vivid dreams….and “gulp” there is more-seizures, depression and psychosis too! By now, my throat was becoming parched….
You can reserach on the recommended vaccinations and the requisite malarial prolophalytics on http://wwwn.cdc.gov/travel/contentVaccinations.aspx.
The right thing to do is to consult the “family doctor” or a travel clinic. Since we are expats in Cairo, we obviously don’t have our family doctor here and travel clinics as a concept don’t exist here. So I spoke to my Indian friend, who is a doctor. She confirmed that Larium would be the right choice-my anxiety had rubbed off on her and she too was hooked to the net, trying to determine the best anti-malarial medication….by now I was having sleepless nights thinking of the personality change (another possible side-effect of Larium) that I would undergo…..
Armed with the list of vacciantions and the medications, my friend and I set out to buy the malarial prophylactics. We had finally decided that Lariam (mefloquine) would be the correct choice-my friend encouraged me by stressing side effects were a hazard even in taking something as “regular” as panadol. The difficult decision was made-but the troubles were just to begin and the trouble was “BUYING THE ANTI-MALARIAL DRUGS IN CAIRO”. At every pharmacy that we visited, the conversation went something like this-
Friend: “I want Mefloquine”
Pharmacisit: “What?”
Friend: “anti-malarial tablets?”
Pharmacist: (with a look of relief on his face) goes behind the counter and hands us a strip. They are anti-malarial tablets all right, but chloroquine tablets.
Friend: “Do you have proquanil or Lariam….it has mefloquine?”
Pharmacist-(with a slightly puzzled look on his face) “No”
We faced this at the 4-5 pharmacies that we visited in Mohandisseen. We were dazed-here I had worried myself sick deciding on the malarial prophylactics and they were not even available!
In desperation, we went to Vacsera at 51 Wizaret El-Zeraa-Agouza-Giza-Egypt. We were directed to the resident doctor; when we asked for anti-malarial tablets, she prescribed only chloroquine tablets and told us that proguanil tablets were not available in Cairo-I hit the panic button-how could I travel to a malarial-risk zone without adequate medication?. My friend pointed to a board behind the doctor which listed the recommended malarial prophylactics for the different countries-the listing for travel to both India and Namibia showed chloroquine and proguanil combination! Ok…maybe I really did have the “natural” immunity and did not really need to take the malarial prophylactics. But it might be a good idea to arrange for proguanil or mefloquine tablets to be carried by any person visiting from “home”. Any vaccinations that you require for your travel can be taken here-Hapatitis, Meningitis, Yellow Fever, Cholera and Tetanus are all available here. Check out their website on http://www.vacsera.com/. However, for the typhoid vaccination, you will have to visit the clinic at Giza.
As they say “prevention is better than cure”; protect yourself from mosquito bites by using mosquito repellants-look for active ingredient “DEET”. Cover your arms and legs during the sunset and at dawn when the risk of mosquito bites is the greatest. I had got a friend to carry “odomos” tubes for me from India.
Though my plans did not reach fruition, I had already gone through the entire rigmarole of preparing for the trip – And yes, I did actually start on the chloroquine tablets; I almost took the yellow fever and the typhoid vaccines-anyone who knows me will vouch for the fact that I am mortally scared of any kind of needle! Went around Cairo on “mission backpack” and many more such preparations. And in the midst of all these preparations, the words of the pharmacist at Vacsera kept coming back to me-“Namibia? Why on earth would you want to go to Namibia? Stay in Egypt! No need for vaccinations, anti-malarial tablets…” And then to answer this question, I would go back to the first sentence of this post!-)
Also, planning a trip from Cairo, Egypt has its own unique set of “issues” as I discovered-surprisingly those relating to vaccinations and getting the correct anti-malarial tablets!
When traveling to the African continent, health issues are the foremost priority-every possible vaccination is recommended! Though the suggested vaccines are only “guidelines”, some countries will not allow entry without proof of vaccination. Of course, coming from India, our immune systems are supposedly better developed, but if you are the “ultra-cautious” kind like me, then you will probably want to immunize yourself with every available vaccine! Also, a sore arm is a small price to pay for peace of mind….or so I thought before I started researching.
For Namibia and South Africa, the vaccines that are “recommended” are Hepatitis A, yellow fever, polio and tetanus booster shots, typhoid and rabies as well. Plus malaria prophylactics have to be taken. Malaria is transmitted by mosquitoes and to add to the woes, the mosquitoes in certain well-traveled areas such as Namibia have become immune to the milder versions of the anti-malarial tablets such as the chloroquine and proguanil combination -the alternative is to take larium that contains mefloquine, but the side effects include nausea, dizziness, difficulty sleeping, anxiety, vivid dreams….and “gulp” there is more-seizures, depression and psychosis too! By now, my throat was becoming parched….
You can reserach on the recommended vaccinations and the requisite malarial prolophalytics on http://wwwn.cdc.gov/travel/contentVaccinations.aspx.
The right thing to do is to consult the “family doctor” or a travel clinic. Since we are expats in Cairo, we obviously don’t have our family doctor here and travel clinics as a concept don’t exist here. So I spoke to my Indian friend, who is a doctor. She confirmed that Larium would be the right choice-my anxiety had rubbed off on her and she too was hooked to the net, trying to determine the best anti-malarial medication….by now I was having sleepless nights thinking of the personality change (another possible side-effect of Larium) that I would undergo…..
Armed with the list of vacciantions and the medications, my friend and I set out to buy the malarial prophylactics. We had finally decided that Lariam (mefloquine) would be the correct choice-my friend encouraged me by stressing side effects were a hazard even in taking something as “regular” as panadol. The difficult decision was made-but the troubles were just to begin and the trouble was “BUYING THE ANTI-MALARIAL DRUGS IN CAIRO”. At every pharmacy that we visited, the conversation went something like this-
Friend: “I want Mefloquine”
Pharmacisit: “What?”
Friend: “anti-malarial tablets?”
Pharmacist: (with a look of relief on his face) goes behind the counter and hands us a strip. They are anti-malarial tablets all right, but chloroquine tablets.
Friend: “Do you have proquanil or Lariam….it has mefloquine?”
Pharmacist-(with a slightly puzzled look on his face) “No”
We faced this at the 4-5 pharmacies that we visited in Mohandisseen. We were dazed-here I had worried myself sick deciding on the malarial prophylactics and they were not even available!
In desperation, we went to Vacsera at 51 Wizaret El-Zeraa-Agouza-Giza-Egypt. We were directed to the resident doctor; when we asked for anti-malarial tablets, she prescribed only chloroquine tablets and told us that proguanil tablets were not available in Cairo-I hit the panic button-how could I travel to a malarial-risk zone without adequate medication?. My friend pointed to a board behind the doctor which listed the recommended malarial prophylactics for the different countries-the listing for travel to both India and Namibia showed chloroquine and proguanil combination! Ok…maybe I really did have the “natural” immunity and did not really need to take the malarial prophylactics. But it might be a good idea to arrange for proguanil or mefloquine tablets to be carried by any person visiting from “home”. Any vaccinations that you require for your travel can be taken here-Hapatitis, Meningitis, Yellow Fever, Cholera and Tetanus are all available here. Check out their website on http://www.vacsera.com/. However, for the typhoid vaccination, you will have to visit the clinic at Giza.
As they say “prevention is better than cure”; protect yourself from mosquito bites by using mosquito repellants-look for active ingredient “DEET”. Cover your arms and legs during the sunset and at dawn when the risk of mosquito bites is the greatest. I had got a friend to carry “odomos” tubes for me from India.
Though my plans did not reach fruition, I had already gone through the entire rigmarole of preparing for the trip – And yes, I did actually start on the chloroquine tablets; I almost took the yellow fever and the typhoid vaccines-anyone who knows me will vouch for the fact that I am mortally scared of any kind of needle! Went around Cairo on “mission backpack” and many more such preparations. And in the midst of all these preparations, the words of the pharmacist at Vacsera kept coming back to me-“Namibia? Why on earth would you want to go to Namibia? Stay in Egypt! No need for vaccinations, anti-malarial tablets…” And then to answer this question, I would go back to the first sentence of this post!-)
No comments:
Post a Comment