Anti-malarial drug should be ‘last resort’, MPs advise

MPs on the defence committee have said that the anti-malarial drug Lariam should be a last resort drug, due to its ability to cause severe side-effects including depression and anxiety.

MPs have criticised the MoD’s issuing of the controversial drug, which has been prescribed to around 17,000 service personnel between April 2007 and March 2015. MPs have criticised the MoD’s issuing of the controversial drug.

However the MoD has argued that the ‘vast majority of deployed personnel already receive alternatives to Lariam’.

While the medication is not the main anti-malarial drug used by the armed forces, critics have argued that the side-effect can be more detrimental to those serving in challenging and dangerous locations.

Dr Julian Lewis, Committee chairman, commented: "It seems quite clear that not only is the MoD unable to follow the manufacturer's guidelines for prescribing the drug in all instances, but a number of troops discard their Lariam rather than risk its potentially dangerous side-effects.

"It is our firm conclusion that there is neither the need, nor any justification for continuing to issue this medication to service personnel unless they can be individually assessed, in accordance with the manufacturers' requirements.

"And most of the time that is simply impossible, when a sudden, mass deployment of hundreds of troops is necessary."

A spokeswoman for the MoD said: “The vast majority of deployed personnel already receive alternatives to Lariam and, where it is used, we require it to be prescribed after an individual risk assessment.”

"We have a duty to protect our personnel from malaria and we welcome the committee's conclusion that, in some cases, Lariam will be the most effective way of doing that."