I took Lariam when I visited a friend who lives way out in rural Zambia. (FWIW, my doc in Singapore thought it was unnecessary, but gave in when I insisted.) Once I arrived, the local expats found it funny that I was taking it for a week-long trip, as none of them were and they'd been there years. Occasionally they got infected, but they shook it off with the same nonchalance that people in the West use to talk about the flu, which also kills millions of people in a bad year.

At the end of the day, malaria kills people with no access to proper medical care, which regrettably includes about 90% of Zambians. But if you're wealthy enough to be able to afford a return plane ticket and travel insurance, your odds of dying of malaria are very low, as long as you keep an eye out for symptoms and get it treated fast.