Safari whilst pregnant

[SamMW]

Planned to travel to South Africa next month and will be 5 months pregnant. Any advice on Malaria tablets suitable? Will be in Cape town for 3 nights and then a safari in Kruger for 4 nights. Any advice would be great as not sure whether to go or not.

Hi,
There are a number of blog articles that will cover this topic (traveldoctor.co.za/health/travelling-pregnant/) and where I've had similar holiday maker requests, there were three things that my clients had to think about:

1. most travel companies only cover "unforeseen" complications upto a certain point and most insurers will not pay if you've travelled against medical advice.
2. You are more at risk of malaria (and even worse, the Zika virus) while pregnant
3. Fluctuating hormone levels will cause additional discomfort and possible side effects of using anti mosquito topical sprays

As a travel professional (who's had three children and didn't take them to Africa or Asia while they were under 12) my advice would be not go while you're pregnant.

Isn't it a zika area?

Personally I would speak to your midwife/travel nurse to which one is possible. Some pharmacies have travel clinics. You may also need a certificate to fly long haul from your midwife (required from 24 weeks for some airlines)

South Africa is still zika free to my knowledge but worth checking. Make sure that you have a strong good repellent. Boots do an aerosol spray which is horrible but easy to use. You can get deet from cotswolds. Make sure that you have a good mossie net to take with you.

I've never been but I've been looking (I'm not pregant). Most safaris seem to (obviously) entail long jeep rides over rough territory - they are bumpy, dusty, long, uncomfortable. The tour operators say this very clearly in the blurb... personally, I wouldn't.

agree with christravelwizard. the biggest worry is Zika in my view. even if you take all the sprays and the tablets and everything else the sheer worry of it as you get towards delivery just wouldn't be worth it in my view.

South Africa is zika free.

I wouldn't risk going to anywhere malarial whilst pregnant as you're more susceptible that non-pregnant women and you can also only take the older drugs which have more side effects.

I'd see if you can change the safari to one of the malaria free parks in South Africa.