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Not sure if you can access - but hookworm alert on Negril beach
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https://montreal.ctvnews.ca/video?playlistId=1.4160062
Not sure if you can access - but hookworm alert on Negril beach
This is almost anywhere that there's a beach...unfortunately not unusual or new information.
From a personal perspective...I don't know where everyone is walking that gets hookworm...but I have yet to get it in all the years I've been living here. I probably jinxed myself by saying that...lol.
If you're here in Negril when you discover you may have it...go to any pharmacy as they always have the treatment available over the counter!
Hookworm alert? Dogs + cats + beach = worms.. Is there more poop on the beach than normal? lol.. Like Bnewb said, go to the pharmacy get the treatment and take some home just in case. I have two boxes at home because you never know. If you walk barefoot in the shaded damp areas it can happen. It's only happened to me once in 17 years of going to JA but it can happen.
Had it once in the 30 years we’ve been going. I had been walking in shady grassy areas. I have been told it’s safe to walk in sandy areas that get sun. I guess the heat kills them. They are gross, you can see the trail of where they move around under the skin.
Hmmm . . . beach shade or sun? Hookworm or skin cancer? Well, at least with hookworm I can self medicate!
I picked it up in June of 2016 somewhere in Negril... it was the most unbearable 4 months of my life.
I think it's more the horsesQuote:
Originally Posted by noproblem
Hello,
we returned last Dez. My wife had a injury on her foot, it itched very. After 14 days it was not gone she went to our Doctor. Because he did not know what it is he send her to a tropical institute.
The Doctor there said immediately that is a hookwarm larva ( other name is skin mole) comes from the poop from dogs or cats. He took a Foto ( you could see a 4 inch trail under the skin) for his Archiv and gave her a medicine to take once that will kill the larva within a few days. So it was.
We think my wife got it at the Coco La Palm area. Because sometimes we had launch there and we saw the cats digging there poop into the sand. Wenn you walk barefoot you cant see were it is.
Horse parasites do not invade the body in the same way, so horses are not the culprit here.Quote:
Originally Posted by ukran1ans
I must have really thin skin. Have gotten hookworm 3 times in the last 20 years, twice in Negril, once somewhere locally. Anywhere there are cats and dogs and moist sand/dirt, you can get infected. It is crazy itchy and super ugly but easily treated. I still go barefoot on the beach.
25 reaches & i walk the 7 mile beach starting from Margaritaville everyday....one day I go all the way to Hedio..the next day to Coral Sea Beach...never contacted this issue..yes I'm barefoot..i do walk at the waters edge cuz it feels fabulous with the beautiful Caribbean Sun shining down on you..barefoot
Hi - I got hookworm between my toes last time I stayed on 7 Mile Beach. I’d like to pick up some medication from the pharmacy when I’m there to have just in case. Last time, I didn’t know that I had it until after I got home. What is the medication called? Do you think I can get it at Costco? I plan to stop there on the way to Negril - 3 weeks until...! Or, is there a pharmacy near CocolaPalm? Thanks.
There's no Costco in Jamaica...but you could go to the Mega Mart pharmacy in Montego Bay on the way to Negril.
There's a few brands to choose from...just tell the pharmacist what you're looking to potentially treat...its available over the counter.
I've been coming to Negril since 1972 and I got it for the first time in all those years. What an unreal itch ! for a long time too. My regular doctor sent me to a skin doctor and he didn't know what it was even though I brought an article and picture. I was staying at Coco -
There is a pharmacy in town by the circle. Zentel 200mg. (Albendazol)
There's three pharmacies if you wanted to wait until you arrived in Negril...one located near Burger King & Popeyes...one above the Value Master...another across the road from the bus park.
I got it this past November. The itching would wake me up some nights. I wanted to cut off my toe on many occasions. It is just now going away.
Does anyone know how much it costs for the Zentel 200mg (Albendazol) in Negril? I called my pharmacist (Thrifty White, Fargo, ND) and she said it is $350 for 2 tablets!
Just called the pharmacy, and the price for Zentel is $440, the main difference is that is Jamaican dollars! So that is about $4 us... A savings of US$346 for two tablets!
Outside of deet, does anyone know of a deterrent, like an oil or cream that repels them?
What is the length of time from exposure until the symptoms hit?
According to the google machine, "The rash usually shows up 1 to 5 days after you have been exposed to the hookworms. But sometimes it can take more than 1 month to show up. Each person may have slightly different symptoms".Quote:
Originally Posted by fargoman
I got a Prescription Last April from my Dr. in Winnipeg. It was called Vermox or Mebenazole. Cost was $88.00 from Costco. Not all pharmacies have it though. My Dr. says children mostly contract it as they sit in the sand for longer periods. Adults can get it by walking in closer proximity of the hotels in the dry sand (where the cats do their business). The medicine started to kill the worms within 2 days. All is well now. I believe i got them because I had a blister that broke open. I also have been going for years and this is my 1st time getting this. I will still do the beaches and resort grounds but be more careful of broken skin or sores.
My question is are people going to a Dr. there to have a prescription written or buying it without a prescription at Negril pharmacies?
BnewbQuote:
Originally Posted by rooster
Re: Hookworm alert
There's no Costco in Jamaica...but you could go to the Mega Mart pharmacy in Montego Bay on the way to Negril.
There's a few brands to choose from...just tell the pharmacist what you're looking to potentially treat...its available over the counter.
There are over the counter medications... Parents buy them all the time... Ask the pharmacist... They have kid and adult versions...
Was going to come prepared with the proper medication when I hit the Rock in 2 weeks...but here in the states (Walgreen's today) it needs a Dr. to prescribe it.
I pick up hook worm in November. In the states I was prescribed Albendazole 200 mg two pills. I have good insurance and the copay was $68.00. Doctor also prescribed a cream with a copay $380.00 that I did not buy. I was cleared in a week or two. As a precaution this past December while in Negril I stopped at the pharmacy by Burger King and the pharmacist gave me Zentel 200mg. Total of 6 pills; two pills to be taken at the same time for three days. I don’t recall the price but it was a lot less. No prescription necessary but had to get it from the pharmacist.
My symptoms began 9 days after departing JA. I have a different insurance plan (high deductible) and my 6 pills would have cost $1000. I called the Dr back and ultimately declined. He said the "worms" aren't' strong enough to break through the lower layers of human dermis, and that it would just die and my body would take care of it. Long 4 months! But glad I didn't take the meds after all.
yeah it took me about four months for my body to get rid of it too -- I only had it on my one big toe, horrendous itch - the two doctor's I went to had no idea how to treat it, no tropical medicine doctors in my area. I knew what it was as soon as I returned from Jamaica, it looked kind of like a thin bright red dental floss under my skin in a zig zag. I have been on Negril Beach for like 4+ decades with never a problem. I was more aggravated with the poor medical care when I came back home than actually getting this... When I searched tripadvisor and hookworm I was dismayed to find a huge amount of problems at one of the places we stayed.