Concerns grow about Lariam's side effects

[JoFerret]

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=542&ncid=693&e=10&u=/ap/20040602/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/malaria_drug

WASHINGTON - In the past six weeks, Dr. Michael Hoffer has treated nine service members who returned from Iraq (news - web sites) or Afghanistan (news - web sites) unable to walk a straight line without staggering. Some said objects appeared to spin around them for more than an hour at a time.

A Navy commander and director of the Defense Department Spatial Orientation Center at the Naval Medical Center in San Diego, Hoffer believes the problems are linked to a drug called Lariam — known generically as mefloquine — that the military gives to troops to prevent malaria.

"They have a pattern of damage that looks like it's caused by an agent, and the agent they took was Lariam. Can I absolutely say Lariam caused it? The answer is no. Is it suspicious, highly suspicious? The answer is yes," Hoffer said in a phone interview Wednesday.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., released letters Wednesday to Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Veterans Affairs Secretary Anthony Principi urging that the Pentagon (news - web sites) implement a program to allow soldiers to report side effects from Lariam and be evaluated, diagnosed and treated without fear of reprisal.
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[Eloriel]

1. Heartbreaking

what we're doing to our OWN troops. This is just one example, and it would be bad enough. Add to that the Depleted Uranium in country, the lack of supplies and equipment (kevlar vests, water and food, etc.), the deaths and maimings (including psychological), and of course the whole damn illegal war to start with.

[BiggJawn]

2. Another fine product from Roach...Uh, Roche....

eom

[Dogmudgeon]

3. Fluoroqine antibiotics

They're pretty good, but they also carry a high incidence of side-effects.

I used Floxin ear drops on one occasion, and spent most of a week in a weird dissociative state.

Cipro is a fluoroquine antibiotic.

--bkl