Standby Emergency Treatment of Malaria (SBET)
Standby emergency treatment of malaria is another strategy to help the travelers safe from malaria. It is not the medication for prevention of malaria. That means there is no need to take the medication before or during trip in order to prevent malaria. In fact, it is a medication set for treatment of malaria. It can be used in case of emergency only. Just take this medication once when you develop fever while or after traveling in malaria risk area. And you could not seek for any medical care to check your blood.
In that case, there is no way to know that you really get malaria or not. However when consider the fact that malaria especially P.falciparum is fatal if not promptly treated. So SBET may be life-saving.
Doctors may prescribe SBET in some circumstances such as
- Travelers must be advised and fully understood when and how to use SBET
Consider to use SBET when you
- Has been stayed in the malaria risk area for more than 1 week.
- Has fever with/without chill, abdominal pain, N/V, muscle ache, headache
- Medical services not available within 12-24 hrs.
- Take medications as prescribed
- Seek for medical care as soon as possible even after self-treated (to confirm diagnosis)
Recommended SBET in Thailand
Since malaria in Thailand and Southeast Asia is multi-drug resistant strain. We generally use artemisinin combination therapy (ACT) to be our standard treatment regimen.
Other useful articles about SBET from our blog
- Standby Emergency Treatment for Malaria (SBET) – A good alternative (1)
- Standby Emergency Treatment for Malaria (SBET) – A good alternative (2)
- SBET regimen in Thailand and Southeast Asia
