UK troops to continue to receive mefloquine despite concern over adverse events

UK doctors will be allowed to prescribe the antimalarial drug mefloquine to British troops only if they carry out a face-to-face risk assessment and provide evidence that they have offered suitable alternatives, the Ministry of Defence has conceded.

The decision to revise its malaria prevention policy was prompted by a raft of recommendations made by a House of Commons defence committee report into the use of mefloquine (marketed as Lariam) among British military personnel, which was published earlier this year.1 The drug has been linked to adverse reactions, including psychosis.2

The report …