ATHV - Malaria pills?

[katiehmorley]

Hi, I'm doing the Northern Hill Tribes Trek in 3 weeks. I've been to my GP who advised that I only need to think about taking malaria pills if I'm travelling to the extreme border areas of Thailand. Trouble is, I don't know the exact route of the trek from Chiang Mai. Is it usually recommeded to take malaria pills for this trip/do the majority of travellers take them? Obviously I want to be safe but I am really worried about the side effects so don't want to take them unless absolutely necessary.

Thank you.

[jimshu]

Go to the Asia forum and type in Malaria in the search box at top and you'll be able to decide after you've read screeds of posts there.

[kmcneil]

I travelled round S.E.Asia with a friend a few years ago and did a hill tribe trek while we were there. It's thick "jungle", and there are mosquitos. I wouldn't take the risk. We took malaria tablets for the full 4 weeks, even though we were in cities a lot as well.

I used malarone and had zero side effects.

[Zuleika]

Agree with Jimshu - there are about 3000 posts on here regarding malaria tabs, this subject has been done to death.
At the end of the day, take advice from your health professional or travel clinic and then its up to you!
Advice that everyone else gives on a forum like this is not necessarily right but nor is wrong.