Malaria Prevention for Beginners: Where to Start

Avoiding mosquito bites and taking preventive medication in malaria areas.

Key takeaways

• ABCD: Awareness, Bite prevention, Chemoprophylaxis, Diagnosis
• Tablets: must continue after leaving the area, for the full course
• Most useful single change: Take antimalarials exactly as prescribed, including after returning.
• Commonest mistake: Stopping tablets on leaving the country.
• See a doctor if any of the signs under "When to speak to a doctor" below apply to you.

Why bother

Malaria kills, it is preventable, and most UK cases occur in travellers who took no prophylaxis or stopped it early.

Start here

Two things, and nothing else until both feel routine.

• Take antimalarials exactly as prescribed, including after returning
• Use 50 per cent DEET on exposed skin, reapplied as directed

Then add these

Once the basics are in place, add these.

• Sleep under an insecticide-treated net
• Cover arms and legs from dusk

The numbers, in one place

Common early mistakes

• Stopping tablets on leaving the country
• Relying on repellent alone in a high-risk area
• Buying antimalarials from unverified online sources

Where to go next

• A Working Checklist for Malaria Prevention
• Popular Beliefs About Malaria Prevention, and What Is Actually Published
• Malaria Prevention — the reference entry
• Travellers Diarrhoea: What the Evidence Actually Says
• Flying and Health: What Published Guidance Supports

When to speak to a doctor

See a doctor urgently for any fever, flu-like illness, headache or sweats during travel or within twelve months of returning from a malaria area, and say where you have been — malaria can be rapidly fatal and is treatable. Do not wait to see whether it settles. Attend A&E if you cannot get a same-day appointment.

Where this comes from

• NaTHNaC — malaria prevention guidelines
• NHS — Malaria

How this page was put together

Every figure, recommendation and warning above is taken from the guidance named in Where this comes from. Nothing on this page is inferred, summarised or generalised beyond what those bodies publish: where they give a number, it is their number, and where they are silent, so are we. Pages are rebuilt whenever the underlying record changes. Sign-off by a named clinician, where it has happened, is shown at the top of the page along with the date.

Medical disclaimer

This article is general information, not medical advice. It cannot account for your own history, medication or circumstances. Always speak to a GP, pharmacist or another qualified health professional before making changes that affect your treatment, and never delay seeking medical advice because of something you have read here. In an emergency, call 999.