One bite is all it takes: Malaria maladies abroad

Malaria requires little introduction. The mosquito-borne disease makes 250m people severely ill each year[1], the overwhelming majority in developing countries. In Africa it is the cause of one in five child deaths[2]. While its victim count has fallen from near 1m in 2000, to 781,000 in 2009 as a result of better prevention and treatment –its threat mustn’t be underplayed. To British travellers, it is too often dismissed as a foreign issue – Malaria was eradicated here in the 1960s after all[3] – yet there can be no grounds for complacency.

Harry Yiddell, a 20-year old from Leighton Buzzard, Bedfordshire went to Ghana in 2005 to volunteer[4]. He spent four months there, doing charity work in schools and aiding construction efforts in deprived villages. His work gave him great satisfaction, resolving on returning home, to return in the near future. But Harry would make one admission to his mother that would have improbable consequences for the fit, young man, seemingly immune to any ailments or challenge life threw at him. In one act of misguided selflessness he had given away his anti-malarial tablets to villagers. Their needs had been infinitely greater than his, he had defended.

Nine days after his return to the UK, Harry developed a headache, a temperature, then diarrhoea. He assumed he had picked up a bug but after two days he was rushed to Stoke Mandeville hospital, where after he deteriorated quickly. Tests showed he was infected with falciparum malaria, one of the deadliest strands of the parasitical disease. Two days later, he developed breathing difficulties and was put on a ventilator, but despite signs of progress, he succumbed to the illness a week and a half later.

This saddening story was picked up by Love Actually writer and director, Richard Curtis and made into a film for this March’s Comic Relief. It traced the stories of two mothers who had both lost sons to the disease. Harry’s mother, Jo now campaigns tirelessly to highlight the necessity of taking precautions against malaria.

While Harry’s case is tragic, it is not an isolated one. Many other travellers fail to take the adequate precautions. As Dr Ron Behrens, consultant at London’s Hospital for Tropical Diseases and director of their travel clinic, explains: “We have a range of very effective drugs to both prevent and treat malaria. Quite simply if people take their drugs as prescribed they won’t get malaria and, if they are diagnosed quickly enough, they can be treated very successfully.

“The problem is travellers don’t realise it’s vital to take the medicine according to the instructions … for some regimes you have to keep taking the drugs up to four weeks after you return, yet 30 per cent of travellers stop as soon as they get back.”[5]

Malaria tablets cost between £5 and £20 a week, depending on the course taken. Many complain of the sleeping problems that occur as side effects, but don’t let these put a premium on your life.

The Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) recommends when travelling to countries such as Ghana, where Harry was based, tocontact your GP around 8 weeks before your trip to check whether you need any vaccinations or other preventative measures. Country–specific information and advice is published by the National Travel Health Network and Centre, and useful information about healthcare abroad, including a country-by-country guide of reciprocal health care agreements with the UK, is available fromNHS Choices.

In rural areas, medical facilities can be poorly equippedand emergency facilities are extremely limited. For serious medical treatment, medical evacuation will be necessary. Make sure you have adequate travel health insurance and accessible funds to cover the cost of any medical treatment abroad and repatriation.

It is vital when embarking on a trip abroad that you are not underprepared. So do your research and get yourself in the know. For more information about how to prepare for trips abroad, grab a copy of the FCO’s Plan.Pack.Explore travel guide, which is available as a free smartphone app, or on the FCO website at https://www.gov.uk/government/news/plan-pack-explore-a-new-guide-for-travellers.

More detailed advice is available on the FCO website at www.gov.uk/knowbeforeyougo and you can also follow them on Facebook (facebook.com/fcotravel) or Twitter (twitter.com/fcotravel).

Know before you go.