East Timor troops battle malaria bug

By TONY GEE and NZPA

A new strain of drug-resistant malaria taken back to Australia by hundreds of soldiers serving with the Interfet force in East Timor has yet to show up in New Zealand troops.

A report from Sydney yesterday said that in the six months after 5500 Australian members of the international peacekeeping force in East Timor returned home, 267 soldiers were found to have malaria.

The majority, 212, did not develop symptoms until after they were home but all became so sick they had to spend time in hospital.

Except for two, they were found to have plasmodium vivax, a strain that does not respond to usual treatments.

Although all recovered, 44 had relapses after treatment with the standard drug, chloroquine, and the more powerful primaquine, which Army Malaria Institute researchers in Queensland believe indicates a need for new drugs.

In New Zealand, senior Army medical officer Lieutenant Colonel Julie Leighton said she had not been aware of any great malaria problem with New Zealand staff returning from duties in East Timor.

She did not have exact numbers, but said yesterday that although a small number of cases of malaria had recurred in New Zealand troops after they returned home, this might have been due to individual reaction to increased dosages of chloroquine eradication treatment given to soldiers.

Army medical authorities did not know of any cases here where the disease had been resistant to treatment.

All New Zealand staff serving in malaria-risk countries were given preventive medicines and anti-bacterial agents to reduce the risk of contracting illnesses like malaria.

Meanwhile, the Australian Army's Queensland institute has been working with United States and Thai armies since 1998 to develop a new drug, tafenoquine, which can be taken once a week by people in high-risk malaria areas.

* About 900 New Zealand soldiers who have served in East Timor will be awarded a medal for working in a "risky and difficult environment", says Defence Minister Mark Burton.

He told a demobilisation parade at Linton Army Camp, near Palmerston North, on Saturday that 900 of the 1300 who served with Interfet would be eligible for the medal. A minimum of 30 days' service was required.

Mr Burton also said the Queen had approved the wearing, by qualified staff, of four peace-support operations medals: the Nato medal for service with the Stabilisation Force in Bosnia; the UN medal for service during its humanitarian campaign in Afghanistan between 1989 and 1991; the UN medal for service with its special commission in Iraq and the UN medal for service on Cambodian landmine clearance.