Thank you, that is very helpful!

In summary, my answers are below:

To be completely clear, when you said “I took the prophylaxis anyway, and lo and behold I felt right as rain,” you are talking about taking Doxy?

No. I went to pharmacy and bought the treatment. Don’t recall which one it was. Coartem is one I’ve taken. Medication is cheap and widely available.

-Have you had any more bouts of malaria?

Yes. Last time I got it in Kibale Forest but you can occasionally get it in Kampala. More likely to get it on safari EG Queen, Murchison, Kidepo parks.

– My understanding is that it’s more common in rural areas, less common in urban (I assume it’s just because in the city, there are fewer mosquitoes for every human).

I’m not sure where it’s most common but your reasoning is incorrect. City dwellers more likely to sleep under nets / seek treatment thus halt spread / have less stagnant water and bushes where mosq breed.

I like deet-free stuff so it could be worth a try. However, for short-term visitors to Uganda, I still recommend everyone takes antimalarial prophylaxis as you don’t want to take any risks. It’s not only that Malaria could spoil your visit to Uganda; if people are ill when they get back home, their local doctor may not recognise the symptoms of Malaria and may not know how to treat it. It’s different when you live here because you can get malaria treatments in every street corner pharmacy. Repellents are great (no-one wants to get bitten by any kind of insect) but you need to be serious in protecting yourself against Malaria.

The mosquito repellent is made from herbs and essential oil and deet free whereas could be used for skin diseases and joint pains. So to combat malaria effectively without taking anti malaria tabs this could be the best alternative.