Malaria Drug Connected to Killings at Fort Bragg?
NewsMax.com Wires
Wednesday, Aug. 7, 2002
FAYETTEVILLE, N.C. - At least one of the four Fort Bragg soldiers suspected of killing his
wife this summer had apparently been taking an anti-malarial drug associated with
aggression, paranoia and suicidal thoughts, United Press International has learned.
That soldier, Sgt. 1st Class Rigoberto Nieves, shot and killed himself after shooting his
wife, Teresa, in a bathroom of their home June 11, just two days after returning early
from service in Afghanistan, according to police.
In another case, Sam Pennica of the Cumberland County Sheriff's Office said he planned to
discuss detecting the drug with the county medical examiner in the case of Sgt. 1st Class
Brandon Floyd. Floyd, 30, shot his wife, Andrea, in their home in Stedman on July 19, then
turned the gun on himself.
"I will bring it to the attention of the medical examiner," Pennica said.
Army troops in Afghanistan are routinely prescribed the anti-malaria drug,
Lariam. An Army
medical source familiar with Nieves' duty in Afghanistan said he was sure that Nieves had
been given the drug.
Army Skeptical
Army officials told UPI that they had no plans to look at a possible link between Lariam
and the killings because they don't believe the drug could have been a factor.
Maj. Gary Kolb, spokesman for the Army's Special Operations Command, said the military was
conducting a review of the circumstances surrounding the killings to see what, if
anything, could be done to prevent future problems. That review is focused on marital
problems, and Lariam is an unlikely culprit, according to Kolb, because one of the four
soldiers had not been deployed to Afghanistan or elsewhere and a second had returned from
Afghanistan in January.
"We've had other soldiers go and come back before these incidents occurred. ... One
of the guys was back for seven months, making it unlikely that [Lariam] would be a
factor," Kolb said.
"There were problems in the marriages before this. That is the focus of the
investigation right now."
The four incidents have drawn national attention and sent Army officials looking for a
common thread:
-- Nieves, a Green Beret, shot himself and his wife, Teresa, on June 11 in the master
bathroom of their home in Fayetteville, police said. He had come back early from
Afghanistan two days before, reportedly to deal with personal or family problems.
-- Master Sgt. William Wright, a special operations soldier, strangled his wife, Jennifer,
at their Fayetteville home on June 29, then buried her body in a shallow grave, according
to authorities. They said he confessed on July 19 and led them to her body. Wright, who
had been back from Afghanistan for about a month, is charged with first-degree murder.
-- Sgt. Cedric Griffin, an Army cook, stabbed his estranged wife to death in her trailer
"at least" 50 times and set her body on fire July 9, authorities said. He had
not been deployed. He is charged with first-degree murder.
-- Sgt. 1st Class Brandon Floyd, 30, shot his wife, Andrea, in their home in Stedman, near
Fayetteville, on July 19, then shot and killed himself. Floyd, a member of the secret
counter-terrorism unit called Delta Force, had gone to Afghanistan in November and
returned in January.
Lariam, also known by the generic name mefloquine, is what the Army uses to prevent
malaria, which is endemic in Afghanistan from May to November in all but the mountainous
central and northeast regions of the country. The Army's Walter Reed research institute
invented the drug. Lariam is manufactured by the Swiss pharmaceutical giant Hoffmann-La
Roche and was cleared for use in the United States in 1989.
For the majority who tolerate the drug well, Lariam is considered highly effective at
preventing malaria. According to the official product information sheet prepared by the
drug company and approved by the Food and Drug Administration, less frequently reported
side effects include depression, hallucinations, psychotic or paranoid reactions, anxiety,
agitation, aggression and confusion. The label also warns "suicidal ideation has also
rarely been reported, but no relationship to drug administration has been
established."
A two-month investigation published by United Press International in May found mounting
evidence that suggests Lariam has caused such severe mental problems that in a small
percentage of cases it has led to suicide. A UPI story published July 30 reported that
scores of Peace Corps volunteers are coming forward saying that over the past 12 years
they suffered paranoia, anxiety, hallucinations, memory loss and suicidal behavior they
blamed on Lariam. Some of the reports include problems that patients said have lasted for
years or months after they stopped taking the drug.
The U.S. Labor Department awarded two volunteers workman's compensation for Lariam-induced
psychoses, one lasting three days, the other an entire year.
In several other countries, reports associating Lariam and violence have been
investigated.
Psycho Tuesday
During the Somalia operation in the early 1990s, a Canadian army corporal, Clayton
Matchee, allegedly tortured and killed a 14-year-old boy who had sneaked into the
compound. The attack occurred on what troops called Psycho Tuesday, the day they took
their weekly Lariam dose. Matchee subsequently attempted suicide by hanging and suffered
permanent brain damage.
His wife, Marj, told a Canadian newspaper at the time that when her husband was home from
Somalia on leave before the incident, she woke up in the middle of the night to find his
hands around her neck. Mrs. Matchee said her husband attributed his behavior to Lariam.
A formal inquiry concluded that no link to Lariam could be established "without
extensive further investigation."
U.S. Army officials said they never saw any problems among U.S. soldiers taking Lariam in
Somalia. The activist group Lariam Action said that it has been contacted by 120 veterans
of Somalia who said they continue to have problems with the drug, including 11 who said
they have considered or tried suicide.
The wife of one veteran also wrote in an e-mail to the group that when her husband
returned from Somalia, "he would wake up in the night and choke me or just about
punch me, thinking I was someone from Somalia. He was extremely angry all the time, and
very abusive."