philoconnor

I've just seen the price for 100 tablets of Doxycycline and nearly fell of my chair - £50.

I'm going away for a year with my girlfriend to Thailand, Cambodia & Vietnam and have been advised I will need to take this anitmalarial drug constantly in Vietnam, and most of the time in Thailand. This will cost about £350 for the pair of us for the year!!

Does anybody know if you can buy this drug or similar ones on arival in Bangkok??

Cheers

Phil

yafm

are you sure doxycline is is used for anti maleria ? seek some medical advice.

traveller

hi phil oconnor, i am about to go on a rtw and have been enquiring about malaria prevention. in thailand u only need to take pretentative measures near the border areas of cambodia and mynamar and on ko chang. i have heard that u can purchase them in bangkok but should buy them from a reputable pharmacist ie. Boots as there are counterfeit drugs going about.

pitty

yafm - doxy is an antibiotic and is effective as an anti-malarial drug. its also handy if your wounds go a bit manky.

when my g/f and i left uk for a 7 month jaunt in SEAsia we also spent about 200quid buying pills. But after a month we didnt take them any more. we went to thailand, malaysia and sumatera indonesia. vietnam would be a place where i would take them and , yes, the border areas - but if you are lazing on a beach somewhere (dont know about koh Chang) then i wouldnt imagine a very high risk. check with the other travellers when yure there.

joely

Maybe you should think about this a bit more before shelling out all that cash. I say; don't bother with the malaria tablets. There's lots of well documented research on the negative side-affects of anti-malarial tablets and I really do think you'd be better off just taking good care not to be bitten. The kind of mozzies that carry malaria are only biting from dusk to dawn so spend some of the cash that would have gone on the expensive pills and invest in a good quality mosquito net, some mosquito repellent and cover up at dusk and dawn. If you’re careful and do all the things mentioned above you’ll seriously limit the number of times you get bitten (Even if the little B*****S do get you a few times it would be highly unlikely that you’d contract the big M) and you won’t have to worry about, or suffer, some of the many side affects. For some scary stories about the negative side affects of anti-malarials type “side affects anti-malaria tablets� into google. Me, I just got very sick and haven’t taken them again for the last ten years I’ve spent in Asia. That said you, of course, have to weigh up the pros and cons for yourself and make the informed decision but in my humble opinion and that of many others anti malarials are more trouble than they are worth. Just don't get bit! (by the way i'm sure if you decide to but them in Bangkok you;l be able to find them, there are plenty of well stocked pharmacies in the city and prices are much cheaper than UK/US