“Preventing Malaria: The Importance of Anti-Malarial Drugs and Mosquito Avoidance”

Take anti-malarial drugs

Consuming anti-malarial drugs is also highly recommended in preventing malaria. For travelers, malaria can be prevented through chemoprophylaxis, which suppresses the blood stage of malaria infection, thereby preventing malaria.

There are two types of drugs used to prevent malaria infection. The atovaquone-proguanil product stops the infection early, immediately after the mosquito bite. The second type (doxycycline, mefloquine and atovaquone-proguanil) treats the later stages of the infection, before the parasites can reproduce.

Avoid going out at dusk and dawn

Longer exposure, such as an overnight stay in nature, increases the risk of contracting malaria. Malaria mosquitoes are very active at dusk and dawn. When in a malaria endemic area, be sure to avoid going out at this time. This method can prevent the bite of malaria-carrying mosquitoes. Areas at risk of having malaria cases include Papua, West Papua, NTT, Maluku, North Maluku, and parts of Kalimantan and Sumatra.