Papua New Guinea

**andrew** · 01-28-2010, 12:29 AM

Later this year I'm going to need to travel for a week or more at a time to Papua New Guinea for my business (Papua New Guinea - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia).

It's a beautiful country if you can stay out of the trouble spots and heed the travel warnings

They have interesting dieases there like Typhoid and Malaria. What's the lowdown on vaccinations? I'm assuming that a vaccination which I believe is live virii would play havoc with my "immune" system (note the " "). Am I kidding myself in wanting to go there? I'll be in Port Moresby some of the time but will probably be in other regions as well, essentially all over the place.

Would I be safer surfing a lava flow or taking my own blood tests with used needles? Obviously I'd rather not catch anything but it'd be good if I can get there.

**elephant** · 01-28-2010, 12:44 AM

Andrew, I have a sister who travels all over, I would see your primary physician for antibiotics to bring with you, I am assuming the water and food are not safe. If your still on immunosuprresant drugs it is not recommended that we take a live vaccine. I think the Thypoid vaccine you swallow ( four doses) you take it the week before you leave. Ask your Rheumy what would be best for you. Good luck. Take some pictures.
I'm sure Sangye can help you on this too and others...

**andrew** · 01-28-2010, 01:09 AM

Thanks elephant. Yep, still on immune suppressant drugs. Will be seeing my PCP in a coule of months (still well before I go) and yes, will take a heap of pictures!

**Sangye** · 01-28-2010, 04:09 AM

Hey Andrew,
I'm glad to hear you're gonna get to travel a bit. But... PNG? I have to say the idea makes me shudder. I was in the Peace Corps in Africa. We were all strong and healthy when we arrived, but were sick all the time with staph infections, giardia, amoebic dysentery, malaria, etc...

I researched PNG's malaria situation--similar to Ghana's. The antimalarial drugs are very hard on the liver. They also use doxycycline but it causes sun-sensitivity, rendering it fairly useless in PNG. They have chloroquine-resistant malaria.

On one hand, the fact that you're going there for a very short time is a plus-- less exposure, less time on anti-malarial drugs. On the other hand, you have to put your body through a lot--before, during and after-- just for a short visit. I don't know if it's worth it.

I'm glad to see they "only" recommend a few vaccines for PNG. We had to have every vaccine available. I actually have extra pages stapled into my WHO vaccination booklet from childhood. I had a "typical" reaction to the typhoid vaccine-- severe upper back/neck pain and muscle contraction, headache, etc.... Personally I believe the vaccines were a huge contributor to my developing Wegs. My immune system was still very good after Africa, but never as robust as before.

We all had frequent staph infections. We'd go to bed with a tiny paper cut and wake up to a deep, boring hole in the skin. I still have scars. I can't imagine how you'd do with an already-compromised immune system. I also had to take harsh drugs like Flagyl for extended periods of time due to giardia. I can't imagine adding those drugs to the Wegs drugs. I was the first PCV in Ghana to get CR malaria (ever a trend-setter) and enjoyed almost dying from it 3 times. It's quite nasty.

Once home, it took me a year to get my GI system normal again and many years to clear all the malaria out of my liver. While I was in Ghana, a PCV's brother came to visit. He had been there less than 2 weeks when he had to be airlifted to Germany with encephalitis and malaria, and of course several intestinal parasites.

I'm sorry to be such a party-pooper. I just want to keep you alive and well.

**Kimbangu** · 01-28-2010, 06:38 AM

Anti - malarials? -.if they offer you Lariam, I suggest do some research on its side effects before agreeing to take it. Personally I used Doxycycline while in Africa, the best one is suppose to be Malarone but I could never persuade my company doctor to prescribe it.

You also need to be aware that Wegener's will give a false positive to certain Malaria lab tests, leading them to treat you erroneously for malaria... but that's another story....

**andrew** · 01-28-2010, 07:36 AM

Egad!! Sangye, you are a party pooper but I don't mind getting my party pooped if it comes in the form of good advice.....pooped....did I say that right?

Certainly a lot to be cautious of. I'll give it some more thought. I might go to Germany instead

Kimbangu, thanks for the tip re: the lab tests. Between the both of you I'll sound really smart when I go see my PCP!