Developed Tinnitus... Could It Be from Malaria Tablets?

Hi ,

I have had Tinnitus since February, 2017 I think. In January we went to Africa and I took Malaria tablets (Malarone) as advised by the Travel Doctor in Palo Alto, California. The very first night in the African wilds was unbearably noisy with some strange insect making a noise that I just couldn't tune out. My wife didn't think anything was particularly loud. So this is where I think it all started. Not knowing anything about Malaria drugs and hearing loss, I continued taking the drug for the next two weeks as recommended. Things weren't so bothersome the rest of the week in Africa... in any case I didn't know what a normal night in Africa sounded like. If I was having sounds in my head, I probably ascribed it to African insects.

After coming back home to California, I noticed a slight buzz in my head, one that got louder if I drank wine. It wasn't there all the time ... and I didn't pay much attention to it. Also I hadn't heard about Tinnitus. It was also a stressful time at work ... job eliminated and reassigned (kicked upstairs as it were).

Around March I noticed a loud crickets chirping like sound in my head while at work and decided to talk to my Primary Care doctor. He said I had lots of earwax and had it cleaned out. Now things got bad ... now the buzz and chirping sounds were permanent and occasionally the chirping would be replaced by a very loud high frequency tone ... around 5 kHz or so. This is how things are now ... the high frequency tone seems to be tied to hearing white noise like the car noises, fans, air conditioning, furnace fan. Some days are good and some are difficult. I try to wear ear muffs when I can and that makes it all a bit more bearable.

Audiologist test in a few days and then to see an ENT. Also plan to see a Naturopath and get a liver detox and stuff like that in case that will clear out the Malarone residues...

By the way I am 64 .. seems like an age when people start losing their hearing and their mind and Tinnitus is the result.

 

@Tintin@BayArea welcome to the group
Do you hear your tinnitus all the time?'
And does your hear feel blocked?
Any dizziness?
Loud sounds painful?
Dom

 

Hello and welcome!
It's hard to say what caused your tinnitus. Some people on this forum have developed tinnitus after airplane flights so that is another possibility. Hopefully, you will know more after visiting with specialists. Please keep us posted. There are people on this site from all around the world. There are older people like me and you, but also many young people. I'm sorry that you have joined the ranks of tinnitus sufferers but glad that you have joined the forum. It's good to know you are not alone.

 

Dominic1955 and Lorac, thanks for the welcome.

In response to Dominic, the Tinnitus is there all the time practically, though there are nights when it seemed to be completely quiet. No the ear doesn't seem blocked once they cleaned out all the earwax. No dizziness. I have had a earache along with Tinnitus once they flushed the ear. The earache is now on and off . It is usually on after a long period of the loud high frequency tone ... and both ears can ache though the high frequency tone is mostly in the left ear.

Regarding airplane flights, yeah the flight was long from San Francisco to London and then on to Johanessburg, then to Maun, Botswana and then on a small and loud single engine to the wilderness. Altogether may be 50 hours of flying in a week. For the first time, I used noise-cancelling headphones for most of the flight and I can't help wondering whether that causes some problem as well.