Travelers may be exposed to various infectious diseases depending on their destination. This section provides essential knowledge about common travel-related diseases such as dengue, malaria, rabies, and other infections. It also explains how these diseases are transmitted, prevented, and managed.
Generally, in our travel clinic, when we give some advices about malaria; we will try to add something about dengue also. Since, in fact, the risk for travelers to get dengue while traveling in Southeast Asia is far greater than malaria. However, not surprisingly, dengue infection is less known to travelers when compared to malaria.…
Giving malaria advices is our everyday duty in travel clinic. Thanks to the Internet, many travelers are very well-informed already. Unfortunately, information from the Internet is not always reliable. Here are some common misconceptions about malaria; Myth 1 Malaria exists everywhere in Southeast Asia FACT: Malaria in Southeast Asia exist mainly in the jungle…
Many travelers may wonder why it is so difficult to find antimalarial tablet in Thailand. Some may visit many pharmacists, many hospitals but without success. Until finally they could find us after someone tell them to visit Hospital for Tropical Diseases to buy antimalarial tablets. There are several issues that need to be discussed here; 1.…
The concept of SBET is a life-saving treatment kit of malaria. So we have to use the medication that effective against P. falciparum malaria which is the most dangerous malaria. Howover all other malaria species will be killed by those medication also. (except the liver stage of P.vivax, we have to add primaquine to eradiacate them) Since malaria…
Nowadays the concept of SBET is gaining more acceptance from many authorities especially in the use of low risk area such as in Southeast Asia. Some nataional guideline such as in German and Swiss guideline prefer SBET to chemoprophylaxis in low risk area. World health organization (WHO) also mention about the use of SBET in Southeast Asia as attached…
In the past, when travelers planed to visit tropical countries, their doctors would recommended antimalarial medication to prevent malaria if their destination were malaria risk area. So generally, the doctors had 2 options i.e. prescribe or not prescribe antimalarial prophylaxis depend the area. The concept of “Standby emergency treatment of malaria (SBET)” is relatively…
In our travel clinic, people sometimes show us their malaria map which they printed from the Internet. Maps are very useful especially in the risk assessment process. They let us know roughly about the situation of malaria in that area. Unfortunately, not all maps are reliable. Some are out-of-date, some are mislabeled, and some are totally…
Risk for individual travelers to get malaria in Thailand is not the same. Some individual may carry higher risk than the others. Risk to get malaria depends on many factors such as 1. Destination. You have NO risk if you travel only in Bangkok, Pattaya, Samui island, Phuket and the urban area. You may have some…
This is one of the most common questions being asked in our travel clinic. Basically, we would say NO and this recommendation is the same as which is issued by the Ministry of Public Health of Thailand. There are several reasons why we do not recommend the use of antimalarial medication in Thailand. 1. The…
Standby Emergency Treatment of Malaria (SBET) Standby emergency treatment of malaria is another strategy to help the travelers safe from malaria. It is not the medication for prevention of malaria. That means there is no need to take the medication before or during trip in order to prevent malaria. In fact, it is a medication…
