Another Malaria post after 2 yrs

I have noticed malaria is one of the subject bloggers are highly interested.

Even before we moved here, I might have read about it hundred times myself. I was so worried about our two small kids who were aged 1 and 5yrs old by that time. I was even putting on mosquito repellent at the begining. Now looking back, I exaggurated the situation so much!!!!

Anyway, now I can write about it confidently since it has been 2 yrs for us here in Nairobi. If you are living in Nairobi, there are no malaria in here. In order to get malaria you have to travel outside. There are two reasons why there is no malaria in Nairobi. First one is the altitude ( 1,674) and second one is the climate. I hear there are some cases in slums such as Kibele but not because of malaria carrying mosquitoes, because of people who travels outside of the city or these animals travels via trains with humans where they can easly transmitted.

All of the hospitals even the public ones are highly experienced about malaria. When you go to the hospital with nausea, headache and fever one of the first question they ask is if you traveled outside of the city. An no matter what your answer might be, to be on the safe side, they run blood test for malaria. And malaria drugs are available.

Some people who travels game drive areas such as Lake Nakuru, Masai Mara, Amboseli, do take anti-malarial drugs. But some doctors are not advising this, because taking these drugs make your immune weaker if you do get malaria in the future, and some of these drugs have strong side effects.

  Especially, tourists are advised to take these drugs since they are only visiting the country for a short period of time, they make stops in so many different areas of the county, and obviously does not want to take any risk. But people who live in this area get a sense of what is dangerous and what is not. And there are serious to mild side effects taking these anti malarial drugs. So there are pros and cons. If you travel outside of the city you should definitely get doctor's advise.

We have traveled outside of Nairobi few times already with our children, such as Lake Naivasha, Lake Elementaita, Lake Nakuru, Ngong Hills, and Mt. Kenya and did not take any drugs. Depending on the season I applied mosquito repellents, especially night time, since mosquitos are active during that time. And mosquito bed nets are definitely a must no matter where you live and go to, because these animals do not let you sleep!!!!