Lariam news 2

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) - The Pentagon is considering sending a medical
team to see whether there are any links between a series of domestic
killings at Fort Bragg and an anti-malaria drug taken by soldiers.

The Army's preferred anti-malaria drug, Lariam, carries rare reported
side effects including agitation, depression and aggression. The
epidemiological team could be sent to Fort Bragg in the next few weeks,
Army spokeswoman Elaine Kanellis said Wednesday.

"There's no reason to believe right now that Larium affected the
behavior of the individuals," Kanellis stressed, adding that the team
would also probe any other behavioral and physical problems that might
be involved.

The drug's manufacturer, Roche Laboratories, acknowledges reports of
suicide and suicidal thoughts attributed to Lariam, also known as
mefloquine. But company spokesman Terence Hurley said they are extremely
rare, "only a small percentage of the more than 25 million people that
have successfully used Lariam."

The World Health Organization puts the incidence of serious
neuropsychiatric effects from the drug at 5 in 100,000. Out of millions
of travelers given mefloquine each year, between 1 in 6,000 to 1 in
about 10,000 will experience some kind of serious adverse reaction, the
WHO says.

Three of the four Fort Bragg soldiers who investigators say killed
their wives this summer were Special Operations troops who had been
deployed to Afghanistan, where the risk of malaria is high. Army
officials would not say if the men had taken Lariam.

Two of the soldiers killed themselves after killing their wives.

Malaria is a serious, sometimes fatal, disease caused by a parasite
that infects humans through mosquito bites. The WHO estimates that
perhaps as many as 500 million cases of malaria occur each year and more
than 1 million people die of the disease worldwide.

Lariam is the malaria remedy of choice for soldiers because it is
taken once a week instead of daily.