{"id":836,"date":"2016-09-12T08:17:49","date_gmt":"2016-09-12T07:17:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.glynns.co.uk\/blog\/?p=836"},"modified":"2016-09-08T15:57:23","modified_gmt":"2016-09-08T14:57:23","slug":"ex-army-chief-would-not-use-lariam","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.glynns.co.uk\/blog\/ex-army-chief-would-not-use-lariam\/","title":{"rendered":"Ex-Army Chief Would Not Use Lariam"},"content":{"rendered":"

An ex-army chief has said he would not use the anti-malarial drug Lariam due to the potentially \u201ccatastrophic\u201d side effects.<\/span><\/p>\n

Lord Dannatt, who was head of the army between 2006 and 2009, has told the BBC that he refuses to take the controversial drug because of the impact it had on his son Bertie.<\/span><\/p>\n

Lariam, which is the brand name for Mefloquine, can cause depression, anger and suicidal thoughts. <\/span><\/p>\n

Lord Dannatt described how his son became \u201cextremely depressed\u201d after taking the drug, saying he was \u201cnot the person that he would normally be \u2013 a very bubbly, personable sort of individual.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cHe got very withdrawn, and we got very worried about him. If that had been untreated, who knows where it would have gone.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2018I\u2019ll take anything, but I\u2019m not taking Lariam\u2019<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

Lord Dannatt admitted that he would never use Lariam himself, despite the fact it was prescribed to his own troops.<\/span><\/p>\n

He said: \u201cBecause Bertie had that effect, whenever I\u2019ve needed anti-malarial drugs, I\u2019ve said, \u2018I\u2019ll take anything, but I\u2019m not taking Lariam.\u2019\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

He added that he would be \u201cquite content to say sorry\u201d to the army personnel who were prescribed Lariam during his time as head of the army.<\/span><\/p>\n

When asked why the issue was not addressed at the time, Lord Dannatt said the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan diverted attention away from the problem, causing it to be put \u201con the backburner.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

Between April 2007 and March 2015, more than 17,000 troops working for the Ministry of Defence (MoD) were offered Lariam medication. <\/span><\/p>\n

However, the MoD insists that \u201cthe vast majority of deployed personnel already receive alternatives to Lariam\u201d, and that it is only given after individual risk assessments. <\/span><\/p>\n

The MoD added that the drug \u201ccontinues to be recommended as safe by Public Health England and the World Health Organisation.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Speak to a solicitor<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

If you would like to speak to a solicitor about a legal matter, please get in touch with us at Glynns Solicitors. <\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

An ex-army chief has said he would not use the anti-malarial drug Lariam due to the potentially \u201ccatastrophic\u201d side effects. Lord Dannatt, who was head of the army between 2006 and 2009, has told the BBC that he refuses to take the controversial drug because of the impact it had on his son Bertie. Lariam, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[589,934,933,593,935],"class_list":["post-836","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-medication-negligence-claims","tag-lariam","tag-lariam-army-use","tag-lariam-malaria-drug","tag-lariam-side-effects","tag-lord-dannatt-lariam"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.glynns.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/836","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.glynns.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.glynns.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.glynns.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.glynns.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=836"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.glynns.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/836\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":846,"href":"https:\/\/www.glynns.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/836\/revisions\/846"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.glynns.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=836"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.glynns.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=836"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.glynns.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=836"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}