Hydroxychloriquine

I was talking to a friend and realized that I was taking Hydroxychloriquine only under the brand name of Fansodar when I went to Thailand, Nepal and India in 1985 and 1986 with my family.

However, our doctor recommended we take it every day while we were in Thailand, India and Nepal because of Malaria all throughout this area. By the way my friend got Malaria around this time (likely some time between 1990 and 2000 when he was in Pakistan or India. He happened to be sitting next to a doctor on the bus who told him he had malaria and who told him if he didn't go to a hospital that he was going to die. So, he would have been between 40  and 50 during this time. So, he listened to the doctor he was sitting next to on the bus and then they gave him Hydroxychloriquine which then saved his life so he didn't die then. So, he's still alive today.

But, I was paying 4 dollars a day for each of the pills that we were told to take one each day. However, later we realized from talking to a doctor in India that we shouldn't have been taking the medicine unless we knew we had malaria because it can mess up your liver in a similar way that too much alcohol can also. So, we were pretty angry at our doctor when we got back not telling us this or knowing this. On top of everything else we could buy a pill of the stuff for 4 cents a tablet in India that cost 4 dollars a pill in the U.S.

We never got malaria while we were there in India and Nepal and Thailand but we did get Giardia which made us get skinny like we had been in a concentration camp in world war II. After being over there for 4 months. But, when we returned to the U.S. we were pretty thin and went to a foreign disease specialist in the SF Bay area. She said it would be better to let the Giardia sluff off because the medicines also could destroy our livers and our children's livers too. So, it took us about 6 months not to see spots before our eyes from starvation. But, eventually it all went away and our life returned to normalcy after that here in California.

So, traveling to 3rd world countries around the world will most likely change your immune system a lot. So, it's important to be prepared for that before you go.

For example, if you join the Peace Corps you likely are going to completely change the way your organism functions for life if you go to a 3rd world country even if you are very careful what you eat and drink there.