Malaria Tablets
Antimalarial tablets matched to your destination, with advice on bite prevention.
Malaria is a parasite spread by mosquitoes that bite between dusk and dawn. It causes fever, chills, headache and exhaustion, and untreated it can kill within days. It is present across tropical Africa, much of Asia, Central and South America and parts of the Middle East and the Pacific, and it is the most serious risk that most travellers to those regions face. There is no vaccine for travellers; prevention is tablets and bite avoidance.
Visiting friends and family
If you were born in a malaria country and are going back to visit, you are at particular risk. Any immunity you had fades within a year or two of leaving, and people in this situation tend to stay longer, in more rural places, and to skip the tablets. Please do not.
Which tablets
The right tablet depends on where you are going, for how long, your age and weight, what else you take, and whether the parasite in that region has become resistant to particular drugs. The pharmacist chooses with you at the consultation and supplies them at the same visit.
| Tablet | Per tablet | 1-week trip | 2-week trip | 4-week trip |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Malarone (atovaquone/proguanil) | £3.50 | £50 | £75 | £125 |
| Malarone paediatric | £1.25 | by weight | by weight | by weight |
| Atovaquone/proguanil (generic Malarone) | £2.15 | £30 | £47.50 | £75 |
| Doxycycline | — | £25 | £30 | £40 |
| Lariam (mefloquine) | £4 | £25 | £32 | £45 |
Trip prices include the doses taken before you leave and after you come back, and the consultation. Malarone is taken daily from a day or two before travel until a week after; doxycycline daily from a day or two before until four weeks after; mefloquine weekly from two to three weeks before until four weeks after.
The four steps
- Awareness — know whether your destination carries a risk, and in which season.
- Bite prevention — repellent with 50% DEET, covered skin after dusk, a treated net or screened room.
- Tablets — the right ones, started on time and finished after you return.
- Diagnosis — any fever within a year of coming home needs a malaria test, the same day.
Malaria tablets are booked through the travel consultation.