Sir, – As a contributor to the recent BBC documentary The Lariam Legacy, examining the Armed Forces’ continued use of the anti-malarial Lariam/Mefloquine, I read with much interest the letter from Brian Tyldesley (D&S Apr 10) and applaud his interest and the points he raises.

Military personnel deserve much better protection from this drug than has been delivered over many years by the Surgeon General and the MoD. With others, I have been attempting to raise these matters with both the Surgeon General and ministers but to little avail. That suicide, suicide ideation, violent behaviour and the wide range of other psychiatric and physiological side-effects implicated with Lariam should hardly provoke any curiosity within the MoD is a disgrace.

Behind the bland and complacent statement offered by the MoD, and which Mr Tyldesley aptly describes as "wishy-washy", lies a trail of long-term institutional and individual obfuscation and gross incompetence. I fully endorse the call for the Surgeon General, presumably the author of the statement, to be dismissed.

Readers would probably be interested to learn that, despite all the scientific and anecdotal evidence, the MoD does not properly collect data regarding Lariam’s side-effects. Rather, it relies on statistics from the regulatory authority, the MHRA, a body to which military doctors have been failing to report over the past decade. That itself is an act of disobedience.

Furthermore, the MoD’s response to requests to engage have been met with strategies involving refusal, breaching the Freedom of Information Act and, most recently, claiming that questions sent via my MP, William Hague, were lost somewhere between Mr Hague’s office and the Secretary of State’s desk. A follow-up letter to Michael Fallon remains unanswered after four weeks.

My advice to all service personnel is to demand safer and equally effective alternatives such as Doxcycline or Malarone. If Lariam is ever enforced, it should only be dispensed with an effective risk assessment. That must be an assessment by a doctor, having properly examined the drug’s black box warnings, UK regulatory advice and the individual’s medical records and background, supported by damage-mitigation protocols.

The dangers of Lariam are now well known. It also rests with the chain of command to protect soldiers. Commanders, in Catterick Garrison and elsewhere, should have the moral courage to challenge very poor clinical advice.

Lt Col (Retd) ANDREW MARRIOTT

Great Smeaton, Northallerton.