Nausea, dizziness, and loss of appetite...among others. Others. The others include hair loss, syncope (temporary loss of consciousness), chills, and muscle pain. Ooooh Lariam.
Lariam aka mefloquine aka anti-malarial medication.
I've heard from my friends that you don't need malaria pills. My guidebook says I do. I think sucking up the side effects is definitely better than malaria. I'd rather not experience chills, rigor, fever, and sweating for 4-6 hours every 2 days. Not my cup of tea. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.
Figuring that I'm going to 5 countries (lumping Honk Kong and Macau as part of China) in mosquito ridden Southeast Asia, getting malaria pills seemed like a good idea. Anti-malarials are one of the few medications that you need a prescription for in Korea. I went to the hospital (my students and teachers call it that) which is like a big public health center. Except with with hospital beds? I dunno. Its either a hospital-lite or doctor's plus. Either way, it was easy. Go up to the counter, say "malaria medication" (malaria is the same in English and Korean) and you get taken to the doctor. Tell him what countries you're going to and for how long and he writes you a prescription. Take that next door to the yak (pharmacy) and you're good to go. Funny tho, the hospital nurse said that malaria medicine isn't covered by insurance and it would be expensive. My month's supply cost me 24,000 won. About $21. Maybe its expensive by Korean standards but it seemed alright to me.
Koreans are really on top of things with their healthcare. Its dirt cheap to get medicine, see the doctor, even get surgery. Even acupuncture is cheap. 6,000 won ($5) a session. And nobody is scared to see the doctor here. It seems like in America everyone is reluctant to see the doctor because of the waiting and costs. Here its efficient and cheap. No wonder my students tell me they were absent because they were at the hospital. In the 20 minutes I was at the doctor's I saw 4 students. I definitely feel better knowing that even with the language barrier, healthcare is easy to use.
A tasty addition to dinner tonight, 1 Lariam tablet. Gotta start the meds 1 week early.
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