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Anti-Malarial Drug Mefloquine Associated With 87 Deaths and Hundreds of Psychotic Episodes in Past 15 Years Was Staff Sergeant Robert Bales Administered the Drug? (Washington, DC) — Judicial Watch, the public interest group that that investigates and fights government corruption, announced today that it has uncovered documents from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) detailing more than 2,000 episodes during the past 15 years in which people had serious adverse reactions caused by the anti-malaria drug, mefloquine hydrochloride, commonly known as Lariam®. Of 87 reported deaths associated with the drug, 39 were recorded as suicides and 12 were homicides. The...

An attorney for the US soldier accused of 17 counts of murder after a shooting spree in Panjwai, Afghanistan has acknowledged that Robert Bales is likely to face capital charges. Do you think Bales should face the death penalty?

WASHINGTON -- The Army has acknowledged giving Congress incorrect information about use of an anti-malaria drug in units in which suicides occurred in Iraq last year. The Army's top medical official testified in February that no more than four of the deceased soldiers could have taken the drug, called Lariam, which the Food and Drug Administration says can cause mental problems. But the Army now says that number may be as high as 11 -- nearly half the total number of suicides the Army said occurred in Iraq during 2003. The Army says it stopped using Lariam, also called mefloquine,...

WASHINGTON, Sept. 7 (UPI) -- The Army has acknowledged giving Congress incorrect information about use of an anti-malaria drug in units in which suicides occurred in Iraq last year. The Army's top medical official testified in February that no more than four of the deceased soldiers could have taken the drug, called Lariam, which the Food and Drug Administration says can cause mental problems. But the Army now says that number may be as high as 11 -- nearly half the total number of suicides the Army said occurred in Iraq during 2003. The Army says it stopped using Lariam,...

By MARK BENJAMIN and DAN OLMSTED WASHINGTON, Sept. 7 (UPI) -- A startling pattern of violence and suicide by America's most elite soldiers has followed their use of a controversial anti-malaria drug, an investigation by United Press International and CNN has found. The government already warns that the drug, called Lariam, might cause long-term mental problems -- including aggression and suicide. Six Special Forces soldiers who took their lives are all believed to have taken the drug, according to the UPI-CNN investigation. The cable news network broadcast a segment on the joint investigation Tuesday. Sen. Dianne Feinstein voiced concern about...

<p>WASHINGTON, July 15 (UPI) -- The Army has dropped all legal action against a soldier who was charged with cowardice in Iraq, apparently because an Army malaria drug made him sick.</p> <p>The case of Staff Sgt. Georg-Andreas Pogany drew national attention last year because he was the first soldier charged with cowardice -- an offense punishable by death -- since the Vietnam era. Pogany countered that his only offense was asking for help after suffering a panic attack caused by mefloquine, an anti-malaria drug that lists "panic attacks" as a side effect.</p>

Fort Carson - Spec. Heather Stanbro finds herself standing in rooms with no idea how she got there. She shakes uncontrollably and has trouble walking without staggering. She recently bit and punched her husband in what she calls a psychotic episode. The 25-year-old soldier blames her medical problems on the anti-malaria drug Lariam that she was forced to take weekly last year while serving as a medic in Iraq. Stanbro said a military medical specialist recently told her that she is suffering from brain-stem damage, with Lariam being the probable cause for at least her balance problems. The medical expert,...

WASHINGTON, June 4 (UPI) -- The first U.S. soldier charged with cowardice since the Vietnam War is suffering from damage to his brainstem that likely was caused by the anti-malaria drug he was given in Iraq, a military doctor has concluded. Staff Sgt. Georg-Andreas Pogany was diagnosed this week with "likely Lariam toxicity," according to medical records from Naval Medical Center San Diego reviewed by United Press International. Pogany suffered a panic attack in Iraq last year after seeing a dead body and was charged by the Army with cowardice, an offense punishable by death and a charge not seen...

WASHINGTON, May 26 (UPI) -- Six U.S. soldiers have been diagnosed by the military with permanent brain damage from an anti-malaria drug used in Iraq and Afghanistan, and health officials must reassess its safety, a U.S. senator said. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., in a letter to Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson, said the drug, called mefloquine, has "serious risks" that have not been adequately tracked by the Pentagon, the Peace Corps and other government agencies that distribute it. "I ask that you work with the Food and Drug Administration to reassess the safety of mefloquine," Feinstein wrote Thompson...

MONUMENT, Colo., May 11 (UPI) -- Early one Sunday evening in March, Army Special Forces soldier Bill Howell fed his 7-month-old daughter a bottle and fell asleep with her for half an hour on the couch. It was a minor moment of domestic tranquility, a contrast to his most recent five-month deployment in Iraq. Home just three weeks, Bill was settling back into the family life he shared with his wife, Laura, and three children near Fort Carson. But by 9:27 p.m., things had gone horribly wrong. That is when a 911 dispatcher received a call from Laura Howell: "My...

(CBS) 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. Four wives of soldiers at Fort Bragg were killed in a six-week span this summer. Each death is blamed on the husband. Three of the four men were Special Operations soldiers who had recently returned from Afghanistan. Two of the soldiers killed themselves after killing their wives. The Special Ops soldiers reportedly all took Lariam, a drug given to troops serving in places - like Afghanistan - where...