18F I can guarantee you with a 100% that no one in this story is targeting SF, and the writer is about as apolitical as a reporter can get. In fact, he has worked extensively with the Gulf Veterans Center to make sure information is brought forward to the military so that those soldiers (however few they may be) receive the appropriate disability benefits. Those of use who have been around SF for a very long time know how your bodies break down at a fast rate and how notoriously the military does not acknowledge the damage. I agree that there are a significant number of soldiers who have no problems with the drug, and that malaria is a disease no one wants. However, I would hope that SF command would not follow the regular military down a blind path. Iraq and Afghanistan are not resistent areas for chloroquine, there were only a few cases of malaria in these regions according to the CDC. The CDC does not recommend Lariam for any region of the world(resistent or not). There are safer alternatives that are just as effective in preventing malaria. Since I know the SF soldier to be quite intelligent, my hope is that questions are asked and answered by the command.
Wife of former 18a and CW2
The military alternative to mefloquine is doxycycline, which has its own can of worms, most seriously that it is given daily vice weekly.
It is interesting that aviators must take doxy; even before this controversy they would be grounded for taking Lariam. The docs considered putting those of us who must retain FAA medicals on doxy, and decided after consulting FAA aeromedical that it would not have an impact on our physicals, as long as we were off the stuff before resuming flying. (My advice to anyone is do not tell your AME you have been on it).
If the guy is not targeting SF then why doesn't he acknowledge that a million Joes and Janes have been on mefloquine for months and years, and apart from the known side effects (particularly the nightmares), most have no problem, and suicide rates are in the normal range?
As far as Vet Centers are concerned... I dunno what yours is like there, but around here they are wall to wall wannabees and phonies, encouraged by lefty shrinks full of Lifton's tendentious drivel. There's one a few miles from my house -- it treats a bunch of bums with war stories they got from the TV in a homeless shelter somewhere. I wouldn't **** on it if it was on fire!
Anyway, the basic reason that the troops on the ground take Lariam is that it is easy to administer. My personal observation in Afghanistan was that in the low country, malaria was widespread among the locals and a common cause of child mortality. Of course they had everything else too: worms, meningitis, TB, bizarre suppurating abscesses; you name it. Other teams encountered cholera and typhus, presumably vectored by returning refugees; we did not. But I would place no stock in CDC statistics from Afghanistan, which has not had any kind of functioning public health system for 25 years, or Iraq, which was isolated for ten.
It's my impression that chloroquine-resistant malaria is becoming the dominant strain. It's not isolated in black Africa any more. (For instance, Indonesia has had cases on Java).
d.o.l.
Criminal Number 18F