I recently saw a 9 year old girl in the clinic when her mother brought her for vaccination before going for a trip with the their church to Cambodia for a mission trip. They had been advised to take a flu jab before going. Only the girl was going and not her parents.
As I talked to her mother, I found out that the church was sending a group of children from the Sunday School to a village in a rural part of Cambodia for exposure to the mission work they were doing there. It was to be a 4 day trip.
I was rather surprised that they had only been advised to take a flu jab. I proceeded to tell them about Malaria. Now many of us in Singapore who have gone through the army would know all about Malaria and Malaria pills. But Singapore is essentially free of malaria and many in the general population are not quite aware of its dangers and prevention.
Basically Malaria is spread by mosquitoes. Specifically the bite of the female anopheles mosquito. It is a parasite(Plasmodium) which infects the red blood cells and then goes on to affect other organs in the body. It can become life threatening if left untreated.
Prevention involves trying to avoid the mosquito bites by wearing covered clothing, minimizing outdoor activity from dusk to dawn (when the mosquito is most active) and taking anti-malarial pills for prevention.
Now there are various anti-malarial pills available in Singapore such as mefloquine(Lariam), malarone, and doxycycline. The type of anti-malarial pill to be taken would depend very much on the location that you are going to. This is because of drug resistant malaria. For some of these anti-malarial pills like mefloquine, you only need to take it once a week, but for the others like malarone and doxycycline, it needs to be taken on a daily basis.
You usually need to continue on the medication for 4 weeks after leaving a malaria endemic area. However for Malarone, it only needs to be continued for 7 days upon leaving the area.
For more information on what type of anti-malarial pill you need, you can refer to this website and counter check the destination of your travel, here
Back to the girl…..
Since she was going to a rural part of Cambodia where there would be questionable sanitation, I suggested the typhoid vaccine, hepatitis A vaccine and an oral vaccination against cholera and travelers diarrhea. We will soon talk about these in future posts.
For the mean time, if you are going to be doing any traveling, do refer to the link that I have given for recommended health vaccinations and consult your family doctor or GP.
Thanks and have a good week ahead.
As I talked to her mother, I found out that the church was sending a group of children from the Sunday School to a village in a rural part of Cambodia for exposure to the mission work they were doing there. It was to be a 4 day trip.
I was rather surprised that they had only been advised to take a flu jab. I proceeded to tell them about Malaria. Now many of us in Singapore who have gone through the army would know all about Malaria and Malaria pills. But Singapore is essentially free of malaria and many in the general population are not quite aware of its dangers and prevention.
Basically Malaria is spread by mosquitoes. Specifically the bite of the female anopheles mosquito. It is a parasite(Plasmodium) which infects the red blood cells and then goes on to affect other organs in the body. It can become life threatening if left untreated.
Prevention involves trying to avoid the mosquito bites by wearing covered clothing, minimizing outdoor activity from dusk to dawn (when the mosquito is most active) and taking anti-malarial pills for prevention.
Now there are various anti-malarial pills available in Singapore such as mefloquine(Lariam), malarone, and doxycycline. The type of anti-malarial pill to be taken would depend very much on the location that you are going to. This is because of drug resistant malaria. For some of these anti-malarial pills like mefloquine, you only need to take it once a week, but for the others like malarone and doxycycline, it needs to be taken on a daily basis.
You usually need to continue on the medication for 4 weeks after leaving a malaria endemic area. However for Malarone, it only needs to be continued for 7 days upon leaving the area.
For more information on what type of anti-malarial pill you need, you can refer to this website and counter check the destination of your travel, here
Back to the girl…..
Since she was going to a rural part of Cambodia where there would be questionable sanitation, I suggested the typhoid vaccine, hepatitis A vaccine and an oral vaccination against cholera and travelers diarrhea. We will soon talk about these in future posts.
For the mean time, if you are going to be doing any traveling, do refer to the link that I have given for recommended health vaccinations and consult your family doctor or GP.
Thanks and have a good week ahead.
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