Doxycycline more dangerous than Malaria?
I just paid another visit to Dischem, that pill popping paradise that i just cant seem to spend less than 30 minutes or R350 in. It’s a disease.
I honestly get feverish everytime i see a new low-cost range of body products…organic rooibos whatsits or green tea extracted thingies. Going after mothers day is the best/worst (depends on which side of the monthly paycheck you find yourself) because everything is slashed to avoid being trashed. awesome. And finding a banded-pack of a product I actually like, like Biogen mutivitamins, is like finding the holy grail.
But today i had a purpose, or should i say a mandate… to get malaria pills. simple, right? I’ve done it tons of times before. I‘ve been through the manic swings of larium too many times to ever go back; have naysayed on that larney one that starts with an M and ends with you clutching your chest at the sheer expense …which means I always settle for Doxcycline. Its cheap, mood-friendly and it’s also an antibiotic…which means i can self medicate whether i am in the bowels of new delhi or the high hills of the himalayas. which of course i did, all the time, in India….one of the few places where 12year old boys hand it over and not under the medicine shop counter.
South Africa may be compared to India in many respects, but when it comes to laws that dont work for the poor and disenfranchised masses, i think we take the cake. It used to be that you could get malaria tablets at any travel clinic or chemist, without the hassle and expense of a doctor’s script. makes sense to encourage people to take precautions around a disease that kills more people than HIV/AIDS.
Aparantly the sanity has ended (where was my memo?) Prophelactics like Doxy are now classified as Schedule 4 drugs, which automatically require a prescription from a doctor.
Without the assistance of medical aid, said doctors cost around R275 a consultation. (and i phoned around)
Now do i look like someone who wants to spend my lunch hour driving to a doctor’s office so that he/she can transcribe my words onto a little pad, illedgebally as well, and charge me R275 for the pleasure?(I can think of at least four products in Dischem that i would rather buy)
I don’t think so, Homey don’t play that game.
Someone explain to me the logic of making an anti-malarial drug a Schedule 4 when malaria is just allowed to run rampant? I mean really. Like a weak-ass prophylactic like Doxycycline is really going to do more damage than one of the biggest killers in Africa….Malaria.
Okay, let’s be fair. Let’s put the two back to back, symptom for syptom, disease against dis-ease…
VS 
In the left corner we have Doxy…a common, pale looking antibiotic with a special talent for decreasing bacteria’s ability to make protein (which bacteria need in order to live).
In the right corner, weighing in at a few million deaths a year, known to float like a butterfly and sting like a mother-f*&^r is the heavyweight contender of the the African continent….malaria
- fever
- rigors
- headaches
- sweating
- tiredness
- myalgia (limbs and back)
- abdominal pain
- diarrhea
- orthostatic hypotension
- nausea
- slight jaundice
- enlarged liver and spleen (sometimes not palpable)
- vomiting
- and of course DEATH
Symptoms of a Doxycycline overdose include nausea, diarrehea and loss of appetite. woo hoo. scary.
Hmm, me thinks Malaria wins, body down, every time.
