Clare Daly (Dublin North, United Left)
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98. To ask the Minister for Defence further to the reply to Parliamentary Question Number 118 of 2 July 2015, wherein he states that he will write to the Deputy when the information is to hand, the reason this information has not been received to date. [39671/15]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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The Deputy will be aware that my Department has reconvened the Malaria Chemoprophylaxis Working Group in August this year. As part of its remit the Group is reviewing the use of the Primaquine drug in the Defence Forces and the overall medical treatment process for those deployed to malarious areas. The Group will report back to me with its findings. The reason the Deputy has not received the information sought to date is that matters are still being examined by the Group. However without pre-empting the outcome of the review, I can inform the Deputy that I am advised that Primaquine is not used as an anti-malarial medication by Defence Forces personnel while in a mission area. Primaquine is prescribed to Defence Forces personnel for two weeks when they return from deployment to a “malarious” area regardless of the malaria chemoprophylaxis they had been taking during their deployment.

I am further advised that Primaquine is prescribed in order to kill the dormant “hypnozoite” phase of malaria parasite which, if not killed, would have the potential weeks, months or years after returning home to give rise to a full-blown attack of malaria. The Director of the Medical Branch of the Defence Forces has indicated that Primaquine is unique in its action in that regard.