Thursday, June 6, 2013

Mission trip prep: health

One final item on our health preparations has been anti-malarial pills. These are basically certain types of antibiotics that work well against various strains of malaria. They are taken shortly before, during and after the trip.

We've been told that the area of Honduras to which we are traveling has no known cases malaria but CDC still recommends the medication. Picking up our prescription today, we found out our insurance won't cover this one (same as the typhoid shot). The pharmacist informed us it was going to be $194 per person. YIKES!  We decided not to collect them but call our doctor in the morning about some alternatives!

CDC states that medical precautions are not always 100% effective, and of course we should do what we can to avoid being bitten by mosquitoes: using nets, wearing longer sleeves and pants, bug spray and so on.

For more info on travel vaccinations, visit http://wwwnc.cdc.gov/travel/destinations/list

For our purposes of traveling to Honduras, we have needed:
  • Hep A and Hep B (multiple shots over a 6 month period)
  • Tetanus & Diptheria (lasts 10 years)
  • Typhoid (shot or pills) Not available from most PCPs locally; Walgreens have it for adults or county health Departments. 
  • Antimalarial pills
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1 comment:

  1. Update on this. We found some pills through CDC site and the pharmacy that - though more expensive per pill - only have to be taken for 16 days instead of 38, so are cheaper overall and convenient.
    Our doctor is checking it out before he will prescribe them.

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