CDC recommendations vs. Local Public health Travel Clinic
 

My hubby went to a local public health clinic in the SF Bay Area for guidance on where to take malarone for our trip to Anghor Wat,Laos and Vietnam. There is a difference in the clinic's guidelines and the CDC. The CDC and their malaria map says Anghor Wat, most area of Laos, and the part of Vietnam. The Public Health Travel clinic only recommends the Sapa area for meds! Now we are confused. Do we need enough to cover, Anghor Wat, Laos and Sapa or just Sapa?

most of us prefer the CDC....our travel clinic at a major teaching hospital in boston uses the CDC..

personally i would prefer the CDC to a local health clinic...

Most travel clinics in the US use the cdc guidelines. I'm surprised that a public health clinic would ignore the cdc recommendations.

I'd start by calling the public health clinic and pointing you the discrepancy between their recommendations and the cdc recommendations and would ask them what data they are relying on for their recommendations.

For me, personally, I'd take the cdc's advice as more reliable.

The Travel Clinic I use (Duke), not only relies on the CDC guidelines, they print them off and give me copies...

We took malarone for Angkor Wat. ((*))

Yes, We have decided to be on the safe side and take it the full time including Anghor Wat, as recommended on the CDC site. Thank you all. The clinic we went has access to all the info from the CDC and the map they gave my husband includes Anghor Wat as a malaria area. I have tried to call to reconcile the difference, but no luck. I think the RN just made a mistake reading our itinerary. So he will get more pills and I will order enough to cover Siem Reap. Zin

I think that is wise.

A related question: My wife and I changed our travel plans since filling our Malarone prescriptions in Canada last summer. We are presently in Japan and find that we are two tablets short each.
We will spending 10 days in Luang Prabang and Siem Reap instead of the 8 originally planned. So, we should have 1 (for the day before)+10 (for the time we're there)+7(for the week following)=18 tablets each instead of the 16 we have.
Malarone doesn't seem to be available in Japan; we have less than 24 hours in Bangkok en route, where I read it's not available OTC anyway. Any ideas? Just go with what we have? Try to get more mailed from Canada by 28 January?
Thanks for any advice.
Will

Malarone is not officially available but can be bought under personal import rules. International Clinic has it for sale. Tel: 03-3582-2646 or 03-3583-7831. Fax: 03-3583-8199. They speak English.

Thanks for this, KimJapan. We'll be in Tokyo early next week, and will try the International Clinic then.

They will mail it to you if you live elsewhere like we do. Takes just a day or two. You pay first by simple bank transfer you do at the atm, then the pills are sent. Or if convenient you can stop in there...give a call to be sure they expect you and have the number of doses you need ready for you.

Even better! Thanks so much.
Will

Sorry, I don't understand the itinerary. Will you be coming home after Siem Reap? Where will you be "+7(for the week following)"? ((*))

Jed, this is just the Malarone regime: you begin the dose the day before you enter the region where it's recommended, take it during the time you're there, and then continue taking it for a week after you leave that region no matter where you're headed (for us it's Phuket and Bangkok).

Thanks, WillJame, but we've taken Malarone twice.

I was just wondering whether, after you leave SR, you would be in a place where it would be easy to get the 4 extra pills. ((*))

Jed, there are no places in Asia where it would be "easy" to get the additional malarone. Perhaps the easiest is Singapore, which would require a doctor visit and prescription. There is rumored to be very limited availability in KL with similar arrangements to what Kim described in Japan. In most other countries in Asia, malarone is not available at all.

Kathie - If you read WillJame's first post, there is no indication of where they will be after they leave SR.

I simply asked where they would be after SR. For all I knew, they could be going back to Canada.

It's like I tell my kids: Never assume! ;;) ((*))