Traveling
and Malaria
I will be
traveling outside of the United States. What should I do to
avoid getting malaria or other infectious diseases?
Some
simple precautions will help protect your health while
traveling. CDC’s Travelers’ Health provides detailed
information on malaria risk by country, prevention information
including recommended antimalarial drugs, and health
recommendations (e.g., vaccinations) for other diseases.
Travelers leaving the United States should:
-
Visit
your health care provider 4-6 weeks before foreign travel
for any necessary vaccinations, as well as a prescription
for an antimalarial drug, if needed. (There are no vaccines
against malaria.)
-
Take
your antimalarial drug exactly on schedule without missing
doses.
-
Wear
insect repellent to prevent mosquito and other insect bites.
Your insect repellent should contain DEET as its active
ingredient. To prevent malaria, wear insect repellent if out
of doors between dusk and dawn when the mosquito that
transmits malaria is biting.
-
Wear
long pants and long-sleeved clothing.
-
Sleep
under a mosquito bed net (preferably one that has been
treated with insecticide) if you are not living in screened
or air-conditioned housing.
Should I
buy my malaria pills in the malaria-risk country where I will
be traveling?
Buying
medications abroad has its risks. The drugs could be of
substandard quality because of poor manufacturing practices.
The drugs could contain contaminants or they could be
counterfeit drugs. Such products may not provide you the
protection you need against malaria. In addition, some
medications that are sold overseas are not used anymore in the
United States or were never sold here. These drugs may not be
safe or their safety has never been evaluated.
It
would be best to purchase all the medications that you need
before you leave the United States. As a precaution, note the
name of the medication(s) and the name of the manufacturer(s).
That way, in case of accidental loss, you can replace the
drug(s) abroad at a reliable vendor.
Can I give
blood if I have been in a country where there is malaria?
It depends
on what areas of that country you visited, how long ago you
were there, and whether you ever had malaria. In general, most
travelers to an area with malaria are deferred from donating
blood for 1 year after their return. Former residents of
malaria-risk areas will be deferred for 3 years. Persons
diagnosed with malaria cannot donate blood for 3 years after
treatment, during which time they must have remained free of
symptoms of malaria. Blood banks follow strict guidelines
(e.g. those of the American Red Cross) for accepting or
deferring donors who have been in malaria-endemic areas. This
is in order to avoid collecting blood from an infected donor
and inadvertently transmitting malaria to the recipient. In
the United States during the period 1963-1999, there were 93
cases reported to CDC where people acquired malaria through a
transfusion. Because of these control measures,
transfusion-transmitted malaria is very rare in the United
States and occurs at a rate of less than 1 per million units
of blood transfused.
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