Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman.
Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. I'm delighted to be here.
My name is Ashley Croft, and I'm a retired doctor from the British army. I trained in medicine in London, England, and joined the army in 1986, initially as a regimental medical officer attached to the Royal Horse Artillery as their doctor. I was in Germany and worked alongside the Royal Canadian Horse Artillery, which was very nice. Then I trained in tropical medicine, and I got involved in this field starting in about 1993, until I left the army in 2013.
I didn't want to get involved with malaria. I wanted to do legionnaires' disease, but early on I was told to start looking at this new drug, and I agreed to do so, because in the army you do what you're told. The new drug was mefloquine, Lariam, and during the next 20 years I did randomized controlled trials and systematic reviews of trials.
I'll come to my conclusion straight away—this is a very dangerous drug.
It's uniquely dangerous to soldiers. It is mind-altering and mood-changing, and also causes severely disrupted sleep, so it should not be given to soldiers as a malaria prophylaxis at all, in my view, especially since safer and more effective, or as effective, drugs are available and indeed have been available throughout this time. That's my position.
It wasn't the position I started with. To start with, I was told that this was a new drug, a good drug, and I was given proof that it was a good drug. However, my findings were the opposite of what I expected.