More on Malaria...medication

So today marked a milestone on our get organised for Africa calendar...we now have all our travel vaccinations woohoo time to celebrate! and we saved the best till last... that's right grand old yellow fever you know its so special you even get a certificate... and I might add that I'm so sad that the fact I get a certificate totally makes up for the fact that its a bloody nasty little bugger of a jab... all on a funny angle close to the skin... made me feel all queasy and yuck...but I got a certificate so its all good in the hood!

Yellow fever- "The only disease specifically designated in the international health regulations (2005) for which proof of vaccination or prophylaxis may be required as a condition of entry to a state party is yellow fever"

so this wee certificate is my passport into many an African nation excellent plus!

but back to my story.... whilst at the travel clinic the nurse told us to go ask at a few different pharmacies for quotes on the dreaded anti-malarial's all she told us was "ask for Doxycycline or Larium should be about 20p per tablet" so off we trudge into the Tesco pharmacy where we ask the young girl at the counter... she the asks the pharmacist.... and the pharmacist is like "what exactly do you want?" we look at each other confused.... then look back at her and sort of shrug our shoulders and say rather sheepishly "the nurse just told us to ask for Doxycycline???" the pharmacist is like "well if you don't know what you want I cant tell you anything" but then looks on the computer types something in and says "Doxycycline 100mg £2.00 per tablet Doxycycline 50mg £2.00 per tablet".... this is the point where we walk away in disgust at this bollocky women and her lack of knowledge and her complete lack of interest in helping... heaven forbid a customer might actually need some help! so we left Tesco with a slightly sinking feeling in the pit of our stomachs for if it is really £2.00 per tablet that would make it about a million bajillion pounds instead of the approx £70 if it were only 20p per tablet! however when we reached home loaded up the computer and google searched we found out.... the average price of doxycycline is 14p per tablet.... shove that up your bum stupid Tesco women who don't know anything!.......

Bob Geldof uses Malarone

At the moment all my reading seems to have an African theme (surprise surprise) I've just read five travel writing books in a row (well four and a half the last one is about half the size of me so theres no way I'm carting that all the way to work for 20 Min's reading on my lunch break! so at the mo i have an at home book and an away book) after non-stop travel reading I'm now into African themed novels starting with (for no particular reason) white mischief by James fox alot more raunchy then i was expecting how scandalous it all was there in happy valley...... i also have heart of darkness by Joseph Conrad on order from the library and a list as long as both my arms to find somewhere...

Anyway onto the actual point of my post....the giant book I'm still reading is entitled Geldof in Africa and I'm sure you can guess what its about...that's right its about Bob Geldof in Africa! its a whole bunch of his stories ramblings and thoughts from over the years whacked together with some really awesome photographs its a great read! any who yesterday i turned the page to a story called Neet Deet basically its a ranting account of him wanting to be in a nice hotel room (hes in a gross sounding hovel where some unknown bugs are eating another bug alive.... nice!) in this rant he rants about how he forgot his bottled water so has to make spit to take his Malarone (anti-malaria meds)which gets me to here.... Bob Geldof uses Malarone lucky him...Malarone is the "best'" anti-malaria medication currently on offer with the least side effects and can be taken whilst on other medication but for a whopping £2.50 per tablet (one tablet per day and you need to take them a few days before you go and a week after you get back) they are way out of our price range the anti-malarial that looks the best to us cost wise is a once a week pill side effects....vivid dreams...not to bad i already have crazy whacked out dreams wouldn't be anything new another possible side effect is.....phychocis.....emmmm.... wonderful....I'm not really sure i want to go loopy and murderous whilst in the African countryside there are more options but like I've pointed out with these two each has lovely pros and cons it would seem we either go crazy due to bankrupting ourselves or crazy due to drugs oh dear.....