John Cummins, M.P. Delta-South Richmond

Backgrounder

Order Paper Question on Mefloquine

Q-26 - (October 8, 2002) With regard to the risk management of the antimalarial drug mefloquine by Health Canada and the Department of National Defence:

(a) what deployments since 1990 involved administration of the drug to members of the Canadian Forces;

(b) did Health Canada receive from the Canadian Forces adverse drug event reports for each such deployment either during or immediately following deployment;

(c) how many Canadians received the drug under Health Canada’s Lariam Safety Monitoring Study;

(d) how many patients were the subject of monitoring reports received by Health Canada directly or indirectly from Roche under the Lariam Safety Monitoring Study;

(e) what types of adverse events were identified by the Lariam Safety Monitoring Study up to the time the drug was licensed in 1993;

(f) what is the total number of adverse events reported to Health Canada since the commencement of marketing in 1993;

(g) how many adverse events were reported to Health Canada since the commencement of the marketing of the drug in 1993 involving each of the following reactions - hallucinations, panic reaction, hyper alertness, extreme excitability, convulsions, aggressive reaction, marked restlessness, suicide, suicidal tendency, suicide attempt, thoughts of self harm, abnormal dreams, emotional disorder, irritability, nightmares, abnormal thinking, anxiety, depressed state, aggravated depression, light-headedness, anxiety attack, mood swings, abnormal crying, psychosis, delusion, speech disorder, concentration impaired, fear, euphoria, hysteria, paranoid psychosis, memory impairment, emotional disorder, murder;

(h) what measures have been taken by Health Canada to ensure that it receives notice of such adverse drug events from doctors administering the drug;

(i) what changes to the product monograph have been approved by Health Canada since licensing of the drug in 1993;

(j) how many Canadian Forces members deployed on special missions abroad since 1990 have committed suicide (i) during the mission, (ii) following the mission, (iii) of these how many had been required to take mefloquine; and

(k) what action has been undertaken to investigate the nature and extent of combined mefloquine exposure and post traumatic stress disorder in current and former members of the Canadian Forces members both regular and reserve who have at one time been deployed on special missions abroad?