[refurb]

I had a friend who was attending Stanford. He did a class trip to Africa, then back to the US. He also started to feel ill (but not too bad), so decided to fly home for winter break. He died of malaria on the flight to London. He was only 32 years old.

[nashequilibrium]

"class trip to Africa"- Its strange they didn't require him to get a shot before going to a country in Africa that is a Malaria risk. I know a lot UCLA and Michigan students who did exchange programs to African countries and got shots before leaving.

[xchaotic]

Shots of what, vodka? There’s no good vaccine for Malaria that’s approved in the US

[cko]

Not shots, but pre exposure prophylaxis of atovaquone/proguanil or mefloquine.

[tincholio]

Malaria prophylaxis is pretty rough in and of itself, and it's not really recommended unless you're going to be in high-risk areas (source, tried to get it myself when going into Mozambique from South Africa, was told there that unless I was planning to stay "in the bush" for a few weeks, it was a bad idea)

[Synaesthesia]

South African here. Fact is most of our country is malaria free, the cities etc especially so. It’s only in the hottest, most humid part of the Bush that you will get the mosquitos, and then generally in summer.

When I travelled to Kenya last year my wife and I took malaria medication, we would do the same if going to a malaria area in SA in summer.

[tincholio]

Yeah, we were not worried in SA. We were in Nelspruit, going to Maputo, and asked for it there, and that was the response we got.

[igotsideas]

I’m sorry to hear about your friend. That’s terrible.

[philliphaydon]

Sorry to hear. I wonder if this sort of thing is due to people not using travel agencies anymore? Before I started buying my own tickets I would go to the travel agency (in NZ) and depending on where I flew they always had a list of recommendation vaccines and such that I should take before going.

I don't know if travel agencies act similar outside of NZ.