Pantanal and malaria (1 Viewer)

[lincsbirder]

Hi
I am travelling to the pantanal in a weeks time and cannot seem to find any info on malaria in the area. Does anyone know if i need to take precaution and if so which one.
Many thanks

 

[Aracari]

No you don't need to worry about malaria in the Pantanal... or even in most of the Amazon for that matter.

 

[Marcelo Padua]

Hello,

You do not need to worry about malaria in the pantanal. One thing I do suggest is that you get protection against Ticks, they do not carry any diseases here but they do bother us a lot.

cheers.

 

[Rasmus Boegh]

The Pantanal itself has had extremely few cases of malaria in the last few years and taking medicine against it typically hasn't been recommended, but figures can change quite dramatically in a short time and relying on info from anything other than a doctor really can't be recommended. On the contrary, most of the Amazon and to a lesser degree a few coastal regions have numerous cases of malaria each year. The charts for the various Brazilian states can be seen here; tabel 1 being the states typically considered Amazonian, while table 2 are the remaining:

http://www.cives.ufrj.br/informacao/malaria/mal-iv.html

Notice also the variations, e.g. Mato Grosso do Sul only had three documented cases in 1999-2002 and 2004-06, but 2003 alone had 31 cases (which still is very few considering the size of the state and that some of these likely originate elsewhere, but it does show the great variations that can occur from year to year). This is why it is so important to ask a specialist who'd be aware of any recent changes (just like the massive rise in dengue some major Amazonian cities have experiance in recent years). Anyway, best of luck; Brazil & the Pantanal are amazing places.

 

[Dr Manjeet Singh]

The Pantanal itself has had extremely few cases of malaria in the last few years and taking medicine against it typically hasn't been recommended, but figures can change quite dramatically in a short time and relying on info from anything other than a doctor really can't be recommended. On the contrary, most of the Amazon and to a lesser degree a few coastal regions have numerous cases of malaria each year. The charts for the various Brazilian states can be seen here; tabel 1 being the states typically considered Amazonian, while table 2 are the remaining:

http://www.cives.ufrj.br/informacao/malaria/mal-iv.html

Notice also the variations, e.g. Mato Grosso do Sul only had three documented cases in 1999-2002 and 2004-06, but 2003 alone had 31 cases (which still is very few considering the size of the state and that some of these likely originate elsewhere, but it does show the great variations that can occur from year to year). This is why it is so important to ask a specialist who'd be aware of any recent changes (just like the massive rise in dengue some major Amazonian cities have experiance in recent years). Anyway, best of luck; Brazil & the Pantanal are amazing places.

Rasmus is right..do see your Doctor..if i remember corrrectly...there was a study in 1987..the light skin people are more prone to moszies bit..but i think your Doctor will ask you too take a maintance dose..but PLEASE CHECK WITH YOUR DOCTOR FIRST BEFORE GOING..enjoy your self.B :t:

 

[Aracari]

Either way, I DO NOT recommend taking any malaria medicine. I work with tourism and had many tourists take it, just to have strong (if not severe in one case) negative reactions to the medicine. It may screw your vacation time.

I have been to the Pantanal and several areas of the Amazon over 50 times (at times for 1 or 2 months) and never had malaria, not a single time, nor anyone that went with me. The problem is largely overstated outside Brazil. Malaria is more common in new settlements and poor towns. The chances of getting malaria in the wilderness are very slim.

Just enjoy the trip and our birds!

 

[Rasmus Boegh]

Either way, I DO NOT recommend taking any malaria medicine. I work with tourism and had many tourists take it, just to have strong (if not severe in one case) negative reactions to the medicine. It may screw your vacation time.

I have been to the Pantanal and several areas of the Amazon over 50 times (at times for 1 or 2 months) and never had malaria, not a single time, nor anyone that went with me. The problem is largely overstated outside Brazil. Malaria is more common in new settlements and poor towns. The chances of getting malaria in the wilderness are very slim.

Just enjoy the trip and our birds!

There are several types of malaria medicine, and some people get bad reactions to one or the other. I've tried all the major types, often for months in a row, and never had any trouble at all. That said, some people do get trouble (esp. with Mefloquine), and this is yet another reason why you always should get advice from a doctor. For some types of anti malaria medicine a "trial" period is often recommended, and if strong side-effects are experiance, just switch medicine type. I strongly disagree with above advice on never taking malaria medicine for Brazil (esp. for some parts of the Amazon). While I am pleased to hear that Aracari never had any trouble despite never taking medicine against it, that is certainly not the case for everybody (several hundred thousand cases are documented each year in Brazil; charts are given in link in earlier post). I have good friends who've been very badly struck by this disease after doing field work in Brazil that didn't bother to take the medicine because they "always had managed fine on earlier visits". Likewise, staying away from "new settlements and poor towns" is not necessarily going to keep you out of harms way. For example, ca. 17000 cases of malaria (the really bad one; P. falciparum) were documented in Manaus in the first three months of 2003. This is almost 10 times the normal figures, and Manaus is typically regarded as pretty safe when it comes to malaria, but during this epidemic that certainly wasn't the case and visiting without taking some sort of anti-malaria medicine would have been pretty stupid. So, most of Brazil is typically quite safe when it comes to malaria, but things can change quite fast and just assuming something when dealing with a potentially lethal disease is not a very wise approach. Anyway, this has moved somewhat away from the initial question of this thread, but I do hope lincsbirder doesn't mind too much. Regardless, Brazil is an amazing country (nature, people, culture, etc) and if doing your homework it really isn't much more risky than visiting the USA. A visit to the Amazon and one of the major South American wetlands (Pantanal, Llanos, etc) should be on the "to-do" list for everyone with an interest in nature.

 

[jocateme]

There's an article about malaria in the National Geographic Magazine of July. The article is here: http://www7.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/0707/feature1/index.html (7 pages)

There is a good map (but it especifically is about children infected) in the maganize and I managed to find it in the webpage too:
http://www7.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/0707/feature1/map.html

The map key isn't there, but it would be:
Dark red (not present in Brazil): More than 50% children infected
Red (in northern Brazil, Belém region): 11-50% of children infected
Orange (northern and central Brazil): 10% or less of children infected
Yellow (near Pantanal area): Plasmodium vivax (the less dangerous) only
Grey (rest of Brazil): Extent in 1946 of all strains
White: No malaria

This site:

http://www.map.ox.ac.uk/index.htm (Malaria Atlas Project)

And these maps:

http://www.map.ox.ac.uk/Countries/bra-pf1.jpg (Plasmodium falciparum in Brazil) - see Manaus region

http://www.map.ox.ac.uk/Countries/bra-pv1.jpg (Plasmodium vivax in Brazil)

...may be of interest as well.

P.S. Ooops... Just realised the maps are the same. But do see the other data in the site.