Zika virus in Mexico
Sep 10, 2016, 8:06 pm
#16
Join Date: Apr 2012
Posts: 1,667
Of course I did not say that. But asking for advice people who are not experts is certainly not the most efficient way to get it. Moreover, given the anonymity in this forum, you'd have no idea what anybody's ideas are worth. So, feel free to discuss anything you want. I just find it strange that people value anonymous advice over the internet more than advice from experts (i.e. CDC). 
Sep 11, 2016, 8:34 am
#18
Join Date: Apr 2012
Posts: 1,667
:rolleyes
I'm in dengue/malaria/Zika/chikengunya/yellow fever areas frequently, am a mosquito magnet, have never gotten any of the above, and trust my own experience of a place more than any so-called "expert", particularly one on a site that generalizes.
), and what happened to you and I'll tell you where he went wrong (or not).
Sep 12, 2016, 8:56 am
#20
Join Date: Apr 2012
Posts: 1,667
Anyway, the point is not WHAT was prescribed, but if needed for the where.(over generalizing, probably per the CDC)
Sep 12, 2016, 7:10 pm
#21
Moderator: American AAdvantage
Join Date: May 2000
Location: NorCal - SMF area
Programs: AA LT Plat; HH LT Diamond, Maître-plongeur des Muccis
Posts: 62,948
Nothing wrong with consulting - ma pony physicians and HMOs use the same sources, most of which rely on CDC et al.
Nothing wrong with thinking a bit and expanding one's circles of consultation as well.
For years, docs would tell me I needed to take Mefloquine (Lariam) for my travels to Papua New Guinea, Vanuatu, etc. (high incidence of P. falciparum malaria). That never stopped me from getting a prescription for atovaquone-proguanil (Malarine) with me for presumptive treatment upon presentation of symptoms.
Particularly because in those areas Mefloquine was already not particularly effective and because of possible side effects - some of them particularly deleterious to scuba divers and perhaps confusing for treatment options (I've known of divers evacuated and presumptively treated for decompression illness when it just may have been Lariam side effects.)
But I definitely recommend consulting with known reliable sources, not a travel forum, and preparing properly. (E.g. I got dengue visiting an archaeological site situated in a very forested area near Chetumal near human habitation in the rains season, and was wearing a black tee shirt and no repellent :dumb!: - I obviously wasn't thinking, as I'd imagined a ruin like Tulum on the coast, open and breezy - and was bitten by hundreds of day biting moxie so, likely Aedes aegypti. Only one capable of transmitting the virus had to bite me of all those that did. Entirely on me. And I got Chikungunya in Vietnam in 1965 - not a lot of information other than "take effing your malaria pills!" then. At least I didn't get "lead poisoning".)
Now, let's get back to the topic (Zika in Tulum, etc.) /Moderator
Nothing wrong with thinking a bit and expanding one's circles of consultation as well.
For years, docs would tell me I needed to take Mefloquine (Lariam) for my travels to Papua New Guinea, Vanuatu, etc. (high incidence of P. falciparum malaria). That never stopped me from getting a prescription for atovaquone-proguanil (Malarine) with me for presumptive treatment upon presentation of symptoms.
Particularly because in those areas Mefloquine was already not particularly effective and because of possible side effects - some of them particularly deleterious to scuba divers and perhaps confusing for treatment options (I've known of divers evacuated and presumptively treated for decompression illness when it just may have been Lariam side effects.)
But I definitely recommend consulting with known reliable sources, not a travel forum, and preparing properly. (E.g. I got dengue visiting an archaeological site situated in a very forested area near Chetumal near human habitation in the rains season, and was wearing a black tee shirt and no repellent :dumb!: - I obviously wasn't thinking, as I'd imagined a ruin like Tulum on the coast, open and breezy - and was bitten by hundreds of day biting moxie so, likely Aedes aegypti. Only one capable of transmitting the virus had to bite me of all those that did. Entirely on me. And I got Chikungunya in Vietnam in 1965 - not a lot of information other than "take effing your malaria pills!" then. At least I didn't get "lead poisoning".)
Now, let's get back to the topic (Zika in Tulum, etc.) /Moderator
Last edited by JDiver; Sep 12, 2016 at 7:50 pm