i've been to puerto princesa 3 times before and i've never taken any malarial prophylaxis.and i keep remembering, how, when mike had told me news of arnel mallari's passing (from malaria), i instantly recalled standing in the middle of the iwahig/balsahan trail, in the middle of a bamboo thicket, i (with arnel, adri and tere), was swarmed by hundreds of mosquitoes who didn't seem familiar with OFF lotion and what it was supposed to do.
nicky had recommended lariam (mefloquine hcl, roche), and i really didn't pay much attention to his directions. today, doc chito emailed everyone a list of what they could take, including lariam, which should be taken 1 to 2 weeks BEFORE departure and 4 weeks AFTER arriving back in manila.
oops. i'm leaving saturday.
to top it off, i googled lariam and found pretty disturbing info. apparently it can have really harsh side effects:
mefloquine may cause psychiatric symptoms in a number of patients ranging from anxiety, paranoisam and depression to hallucinations and psychotic behavior. on occasions, these symptoms have been reported to continue long after mefloquine has been stopped. rare cases of suicidal ideation and suicide have been reported though no relationship to drug administration has been confirmed. (product insert)
uh oh. wow. it was linked to the suicide of american soldiers who came from afghanistan. and... there was even a law & order svu episode bsed on those events!
very interesting. google can turn up such paranoia-inducing information (literally).
well, if i start acting psychotic in class, you'll know which prophylactic i took.
