Ex-Army chief: Malaria drug made my son mentally ill too
I refused to take it, but still gave it to troops
A FORMER head of the Army has admitted he refused to take a controversial anti-malarial drug used by troops after it made his son mentally ill.
Lord Dannatt, who was chief of the general staff between 2006 and 2009, apologised to soldiers given the medication under his command.
He said his son, Bertie, suffered depression after taking two doses of Lariam in the 1990s. In a candid interview, he admitted that the side-effects of the drug could be ‘pretty catastrophic’.
Lariam – which is linked to depression, hallucinations and panic attacks – has been given to thousands of soldiers despite campaigns to ban it.
Although it is not the main anti-malarial drug used by the Armed Forces, 17,368 personnel were prescribed it at least once between April 2007 and March 2015. The Ministry of Defence (MoD) is understood to have a stockpile of more than 11,500 packs of the medication.
Lord Dannatt said Bertie suf- fered mental health problems after taking Lariam twice before visiting Africa as a civilian in the late 1990s. His son was not in the Armed Forces at the time but had been prescribed the drug by his father’s Army doctor.
Lord Dannatt said Bertie developed depression, adding that had he been left untreated, ‘who knows where it would have gone?’ He told the BBC: ‘He became extremely depressed ... not the person that he would normally be – a very bubbly, personable sort of individual.
‘He got very withdrawn and we got very worried about him.’
Lord Dannatt added: ‘Because Bertie had that effect, whenever I’ve needed anti-malarial drugs, I’ve said, “I’ll take anything, but I’m not taking Lariam”.’ He said he has never used the drug, add- ing: ‘Because I had first-hand experience of what could happen, I couldn’t see the point of putting myself in the same position.’
Lord Dannatt said he was ‘quite content to say sorry’ to personnel who took Lariam while he was head of the Army.
His son spent five years in the military, including two tours of Iraq and deployments to Afghanistan, Bosnia and the Falklands, before leaving in 2008.
Lord Dannatt suggested evaluating the merits of Lariam was put on the ‘backburner’, because between 2003 and 2014 the MoD was focused on conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan, which are not malarial areas. The former army chief also suggested the MoD was afraid of opening the ‘floodgates’ to ‘very expensive’ compensation claims if it admitted the drug had harmed troops.
He said: ‘The right response by the MoD would be to take a generous approach ... and invite those who think they have lost a loved one, or indeed an individual who believes he or she is still suffering as a result of Lariam, to put their case forward and have their case examined.’
Earlier this year the Commons Defence Committee called for Lariam to be designated a ‘drug of last resort’, only to be issued when there was no alternative.
Drug manufacturer Roche said it ‘will continue to work with the Ministry of Defence to ensure that they have all the relevant information to ensure Lariam is prescribed appropriately’.
It added that recent EU safety assessments reinforced guidance that ‘the benefits of Lariam outweigh the potential risks’.
An MoD spokesman said: ‘The majority of personnel receive alternatives to Lariam and it is only prescribed after an individual risk assessment.’
‘He got very withdrawn’