Thanks. I will look at these later. Battling insomnia right now.
I was first in Australia & PNG in 1975. While we were required to be inoculated against Yellow Fever, no one mentioned malaria. After arrival, we were told to get the OTC chloroquinine pills available in the pharmacies and everyone we spoke to said, “We all have it.” We took the pills and did not get malaria.
We returned in Oz in 2000 and again, no mention of malaria. We did not visit PNG that trip, took nothing, contracted nothing.
Guess we were lucky.
No worries about malaria in Oz. It has been free of endemic malaria since the early 1980s.
Back in 1975, chloroquine was probably quite effective in PNG. Sadly, resistance has since developed. If you go back, look at doxy and pack plenty of sunscreen (doxy makes your skin more sensitive to sun damage, terrible sun burns if not careful — a fair-skinned Irish friend got the most awful case of sun poisoning as there was no sunscreen to be had in the area at the time). I would personally advise against Larium (seen it do such nasty things to people I’d rather have malaria again, frankly), but do you own research.
In the early 1990s, in the area where I lived, the predominant strain was multi-drug resistant P. falciparum and very common. At that time, it was believed Halfan would be effective, but was withheld except in the most dire cases in an effort to avoid resistance to it as well. Hence the “toxic doses” of quinine I was prescribed. The cure was worse than the disease in my particular case, but it did the trick. I am so grateful my hearing came back. It doesn’t always.
Also make sure to have some artesunate on hand in case you do contract malaria. That stuff rocks!