The Green Berets and other members of the U.S. Army’s elite commandos will no longer be prescribed the anti-malarial drug, mefloquine, which has been linked to permanent brain damage in the past.
The decision from the Special Forces’ top physician comes less than two months after the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) slapped its “black box” warning — the agency’s strongest precautionary label — onto the drug.
Originally developed by Army doctors in the 1970s, mefloquine was the first line of defense against the mosquito-borne disease for decades. Millions of travelers along with military men have taken the drug to prevent malaria, a disease which still kills 660,000 people annually, according to the World Health Organization.
The FDA toughened its warning for the drug due to a slate of neurological side effects that have been connected to its use. These include dizziness, loss of balance, and ringing in the ears, as well as psychiatric symptoms like anxiety, depression, and hallucinations ....
