Legion to hold seminar on effects of anti-malaria drug Mefloquine

By Mike Renzella

The Haldimand Press

DUNNVILLE—An educational seminar will be held on November 2, 2019 at the Dunnville Legion to discuss the effects of antimalarial drug mefloquine, which was administered by the Canadian military from 1992 to 2017.

“The seminar is being held to describe the drug, tell everybody what the drug is, what the effects are, the whole history of it all,” explains Brent O’Connor, Veteran’s Services Officer.

Mefloquine is “associated with a significant risk of chronic neuropsychiatric adverse effects”, according to Dr. Remington Nevin, Executive Director of the Quinism Foundation, a non-profit group based out of Vermont who are studying the drug.

The seminar is being run in collaboration with Veterans House, an organization devoted to promoting health by providing veterans suffering from mental illness or operational stress injuries with access to related counselling and peer support programs.

“There were a lot of reports that were made in real time as things started going wrong in Somalia,” states Stephan Beardwood, founding board member of Veterans House, on when the drug was first administered to Canadians. “I was one of those veterans; I was serving there. There were numerous incidents there, to the point where it really startled and alerted a lot of top brass. But none of that was passed on to parliament or government at the time, nor did it go to Health Canada.”

Beardwood further elaborates on conditions in Somalia at the time: “There were a couple of murders, attempted suicide, several psychotic breaks, and there were 24 incidences of unlawful firing of a weapon…. this was way beyond anything that had ever been experienced at any point in Canadian military history.”

“Although many of the symptoms of mefloquine poisoning can mimic those of PTSD, typically these begin soon after use of the drug, rather than following a specific traumatic event. Because mefloquine is often started before deployment, many veterans can date the onset of their symptoms, such as insomnia, anxiety, and nightmares, to a date prior to any plausible traumatic exposure,” explains Nevin. “Also, unlike the nightmares of PTSD, which relate to a specific traumatic event, mefloquine nightmares often have nothing to do with any identifiable event, and often feature imagery, such as monsters and demons, or disturbing themes such as harm coming to one’s self or a loved one, that is reminiscent more of a horror movie than any real event.”