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Where you are going will be OK. It's mostly a problem during certain parts of the year around the Burmese and Laotian borders. There, taking meds would be important as a new strain of malaria has developed that has a high percentage of death rates. The meds prevent it, but nothing helps it if you get it. That being said, it's not going to be present in your travel areas. Using a bugnet at night and deet will also be a good preventative anywhere in Thailand. During the rainy season, Chiang Mai has a lot of mosquitoes, although they are more annoying than dangerous.7
Might be an unpopular question but how did the med-resistant types develope? Could it be possible that paranoid travellers always wanting to be 100% on the safe side contribute to this and then are afraid of resistant stains?
Generally, it is misuse of drugs used for treatment, primarily by locals who purchase them without seeing a health care person. They take the drug "until I feel better." Or, unable to afford enough pills for a cure, they only by one or two. Counterfeit drugs also play a role--if the drug is understrength, it's like not taking a full course. The biology is complex, but basically, there will often be a parasite or two that, as a result of mutation, is a little harder to kill that the rest. If a drug is used properly, eventually the mutated bug succumbs. If used improperly, the bug survives to reproduce & pass on its genes to its progeny.
This article describes the process in understandable language, not doctor-ese. Drug-Resistant Malaria Vexes Health Workers in Cambodia
Nutrax
The plural of anecdote is not data.
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I agree with the majority, been living in Thailand for thirteen years and never been worried about malaria, true, if you are going to spend time in jungle areas close to Thailand's borders, then you should consider it a possible threat.Best advice is to be sensible, there are many more mosquito borne diseases in Thailand, as already mentioned the main threat is from Dengue fever , there has been a huge rise in the number of dengue cases, and it can occur anywhere.
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