In Reply to: Should I take Malaria medication for a PNG liveaboard? posted by malibudiver on September 13, 2008 at 23:08:43:

Get a prescription for the right drug now, and try it now and see if there are any side effects. This is a good data point to have and will make your decision a lot easier.

Personally, I found little or none with the stuff recommended for the area I was in, so took the meds on the 1st trip.

I took a second trip to the same area, and was lazy and didn't take any meds. Different season and there were lots of mosquitos (land based op). A few weeks after I was home, I developed a funny little fever that came in cycles. It turned out not to be malaria, but the testing was a pain. Insurance only covered a bit of it, I was out of pocket about $150 for it. The vial were about the size of red bull cans, and they drew 4 of them about 2/3 full. Had to go back a week later and do it again because they did it wrong and didn't take enough - not many places had the test, and the one that did didn't know how to use it.