HANA GARTNER(the fifth estate): Hello, I’m Hana Gartner. Welcome to the fifth estate. Tonight, we sent our soldiers off to fight for us, even die for us, in some of the world’s worst places, and we gave them a little something to help them stay safe. But for some, that little something became a ticket to hell. For Canadian soldiers in Third World theatres, tropical diseases like malaria are more of a threat than enemy bullets. Enter Mefloquine, anti-malaria medicine, highly effective.
DICK MACLEAN (Director of tropical medicine at Montreal General Hospital and McGill University): It’s more used than any other anti-malarial, for the risky parts of the world.
GARTNER: But what our troops were not told was that in many cases, they were guinea pigs for a drug that is now being connected with horrifying side effects, hideous nightmares.
DEBBIE LOWN: It’s like plugged-in colours, and it’s sick, morbid. I mutilated bodies in my dreams.
GARTNER: Episodes of madness.