There is absolutely no reason for someone to contract malaria these days, as there are very effective preventative medications, with the most prominent one being Malarone. You need to start taking it a couple of days before you leave your home country, and then continue it after you return home, for something like 30 days, I think. Other precautions include wearing long pants and long sleeves around sunset, etc. Malaria is borne by mosquitos, so you need to have mosquito repellent available. We did take our own, but all of the camps that we stayed in--Wilderness camps in Botswana--all provided mosquito coils and lotion. All of that said, we travelled in May, 2005 and we saw virtually NO mosquitoes. It depends to a great extent, WHERE you travel and WHEN. Africa is a very big continent and what can be a small problem in some places is a huge problem other places, and not a problem at all in yet another place.

We went to our doctor 3 months before our trip, and he asked us for the specific COUNTRY within Africa that we would be visiting, and there was a source book that he consulted, from the CDC possibly?? Not sure, but anyway, he got specific recommendations for which shots and other medications that we should have. As I said, we stayed in Wilderness camps in Botswana, which was very high end, granted, but all the food, water, etc., was extremely safe there. If you are considering someplace less high end, you probably should be more concerned with regard to the safety of water and food, so that you don't get a case of Montezuma's revenge. Again, our doctor also gave us some medication up FRONT to battle diahherea, and an antibiotic, in CASE we needed those things. Thankfully we did not need to use them, but I was very glad we had them.