MP Eric Joyce has been hospitalised after catching malaria. He was on a business trip to Ghana and didn’t take his medication! Despite the warnings from GPs, the various travel sites, and the high profile Malaria No More campaign, people continue to travel to Sub Saharan Africa without taking the basic precautions!
On a recent trip to Uganda to visit some potential distributors for Corner Star Fly Screens I went to get my Yellow Fever jab updated. I knew that tablets were compulsory when visiting Kampala, only kilometres away from Africa’s largest lake and the breeding ground for the vector-borne disease. To my amazement the GP further recommended that I take medication in advance of visiting the Kruger Park, which I believe to be Malaria free.
Armed with Malarone and some Deet cream I departed for Uganda. While the hotel had some rusting and split metal fly screens and nets fixed above the beds, I still somehow managed to get bitten at least once and possibly twice despite all of my precautions. Still if you are visited Rwanda, Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania or Burundi in East or Ghana, Nigeria, Benin, Ivory Coast in West Africa, plan and be prepared and check the Malaria Hotspots map to see the level of threat in the country you plan to visit.