Lariam news 10

FORT BRAGG, N.C. (AP) - An Army team of health specialists has extended its stay at Fort Bragg as it investigates the medical aspects of a string of slayings involving military couples this summer.

The 16-member epidemiology team from the Army's Office of the Surgeon General arrived Sunday and had planned to leave Thursday. Instead, it will stay through next week to extend their investigation, officials said.

The team includes a psychologist, a psychiatrist, a social worker,
and two people from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The investigators are trying to identify what factors contributed to the killings and what may have prevented them.

"We're working with them closely as an installation," said Maj. Jan Northstar, a Fort Bragg spokeswoman.

The team's report should be completed by the end of September, when it will be presented to the Army's Surgeon General, said Virginia Stephanakis, a spokeswoman for the surgeon general's office.

The team's decision came as the military announced that U.S. soldiers will be screened for psychological problems before they leave Afghanistan and commanders will watch out for symptoms of depression and anxiety among their troops.

Three of the four Fort Bragg soldiers accused of killing their wives this summer had served in Afghanistan. Two then committed suicide.

Soldiers from Fort Bragg, the headquarters of the 82nd Airborne Division and the U.S. Army's John F. Kennedy Special Warfare Center and School, have featured prominently in ground operations in Afghanistan.

Two of the three implicated were members of the Special Forces and a third reportedly a member of the secret Delta Force. A fourth soldier charged with killing his wife did not serve in Afghanistan and was not in Special Forces.

Part of the health team's investigation will include a look at the anti-malarial drug Lariam, which is routinely prescribed to soldiers in malaria-risk countries such as Afghanistan.

Pentagon and Fort Bragg officials have said Lariam will play a small role in the investigation. Fort Bragg's own investigation so far has not found Lariam to be a factor in the murders, officials said.