Army units ordered to stop taking anti-malarial drug mefloquine

Published September 19, 2013APhttp://www.foxnews.com/health/2013/09/19/army-units-ordered-to-stop-taking-anti-malarial-drug-linked-to-brain-damage/?The top doctor for Green Berets and other elite Army commandos has told troops to immediately stop taking mefloquine, an anti-malaria drug found to cause permanent brain damage in rare cases.The ban among special operations forces is the latest development in a long-running controversy over mefloquine. The drug was developed by the Army in the 1970s and has been taken by millions of travelers and people in the military over the years. As alternatives were developed, it fell out of favor as the front-line defense against malaria, a mosquito-borne disease that international health officials say kills roughly 600,000 people a year.The new prohibition among special operations forces follows a July 29 safety announcement by the Food and Drug Administration that it had strengthened warnings about neurologic side effects associated with the drug. The FDA added a boxed warning to the drug label, the most serious kind of warning, saying neurologic side effects like dizziness, loss of balance and ringing in the ears may become permanent.The drug's other side effects include anxiety, depression and hallucinations -- conditions that some military families over the years believe prompted psychotic behavior in their loved ones, including killings and suicides.Quoting the FDA's July safety warning, the Surgeon General's Office of the Army Specia...
Source: PharmaGossip - Category: Pharma Commentators Authors: Source Type: blogs