A story in Wednesday’s Daily should have said the anti-malaria drug Doxycycline must be taken for two to three days before entering a malaria zone.

Abby Rogosheske spent 10 months last year in Uganda and other regions of sub-Saharan Africa. About a month before the Weinberg senior left Uganda, she stopped taking her antimalarial medication for health and monetary reasons.

“All of those things played into my decision to just sort of screw the whole thing,” said Rogosheske. Luckily, she didn’t get sick.

Skipping medication is a common issue among students studying abroad, said Dr. Joanne Connolly, a physician at Searle Student Health Service who advises students about travel precautions before they go abroad. She said she hasn’t heard of a student contracting malaria in five years, but incidents of students skipping pills might go undetected.

“It’s probably more common than a lot of people realize,” Connolly said.

The problem is not unique to antimalarial drugs, she said. People are generally inconsistent in taking medications.

“It’s part of human nature,” she said. “Some people are good at taking medications and some people are lousy at taking medications.”

Study Abroad Director Bill Anthony said the issue has never come to his attention before. If a pattern developed, he said, the Study Abroad Office would respond.

Malaria, a potentially deadly disease transmitted by the bite of a mosquito carrying parasites, is commonly found in Africa, South and Central America, and Asia. The disease is common in tropical and sub-tropical regions and depends on temperature, humidity and rainfall, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Protection. Some students who didn’t take medications properly might not have been in risky regions.

Anthony said students who go abroad receive a pre-departure orientation from the Study Abroad Office and are advised to contact their study abroad programs , as well as familiarize themselves with CDC guidelines before they leave. Students can schedule travel consults in Searle to learn what precautions they need to take for the countries they will be visiting.

Connolly said there are four medicines NU prescribes to prevent malaria: Malarone, Doxycycline, Lariam and Chloroquine. Chloroquine is usually only prescribed for students studying in Central America.

Students who take antimalarial drugs can still contact malaria, Connolly said. Some strains might be resistant to medications, she said.

Weinberg senior Rachel Pike, who studied in Tanzania all of last year, contracted malaria twice, even though she consistently took Malarone.

For students who start taking medications, some serious side effects, often including depression, hallucinations and upset stomachs, might make them stop, Connolly said.

Costs also can be an issue for some students, Connolly said. At Searle, Malarone costs $124.20 for 24 pills and Lariam costs $74.30 for seven pills. Some of the drugs, including Malorone, have to be taken before and after visiting the malarial region, and expenses can quickly add up.

Cost was a major reason Weinberg senior Daniel Carew didn’t even start taking antimalarial medicine. Carew studied in South Africa, where malaria isn’t rampant, but made a four-day trip north to a Kruger National Park, a high-risk region.

It would have cost about $200 for medication for those four days, he said. It was winter in South Africa, and he said he didn’t think malaria was prevalent at that time. Carew never contracted malaria.

“(The medicine) was hugely expensive, and I didn’t feel like paying that much money for something I didn’t feel like I needed,” he said.

It also might be difficult for people abroad to take their medications on a regular basis, Connolly said. Doxycycline needs to be taken every day in the malarial region, for two to three weeks before entering the malaria zone and four weeks after leaving.

Doxycycline was a hassle for Alex Lofton, a Weinberg junior who also traveled in South America and Africa in winter. He also said there weren’t many explicit warnings about the disease, and he didn’t feel compelled to take his medications. But like other students, Lofton said he felt guilty for not taking malaria medications.

Reach Lauren Pond at [email protected].