Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what guidance his Department gives on the prescribing of mefloquine to armed forces personnel; and if he will make a statement.

Mefloquine (commercially known as Lariam) is one of a number of effective methods of malaria chemoprophylaxis used by the military in many parts of the world where Service personnel deploy. The exact choice of drug depends on a number of factors, including the region the individual is deploying to, their health and any past history of side effects.

These drugs are licensed in the UK by the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency, based on the expert guidance of the Advisory Committee for Malaria Prevention of Public Health England. The MOD reviews its policy on the use of antimalarial drugs in line with advice from the Advisory Committee.

The following numbers of UK Armed Forces personnel, Regular and Reservist, have been prescribed Mefloquine in each month of 2014:

It should be noted that personnel have been counted in every month they were prescribed Mefloquine, but have only been counted once per month.