PFPC Daily - June 15, 2005

UPI honored for GI malaria-drug reporting

Washington, DC, Jun. 13 (UPI) -- The nation's leading mental-health
group has honored United Press International's reporting on the
military's use of a controversial anti-malaria drug.

Dan Olmsted and Mark Benjamin won for best wire/Internet reporting in
the National Mental Health Association's annual contest. The judges
cited their ongoing articles on the impact of the drug, called
Lariam, on the mental health of soldiers serving in Iraq.

"In 2004, UPI documented the military's unwillingness to face the
problem, triggered investigations and warnings by the military and
the Veterans Administration, discovered bad data given to Congress
about Lariam and suicides in Iraq, and revealed a startling pattern
of violence and suicide among the military's elite Special Forces
soldiers after taking the drug," said the NMHA.

"Editor & Publisher and other sources credited UPI's work for a
subsequent drop in suicide rates in Iraq. A charge of cowardice
against a soldier who suffered a panic attack after taking the drug
-- a charge punishable by death and not seen since the Vietnam War --
was dropped. CNN invited UPI to report its findings in a televised
segment, which the network has nominated for an Emmy."

The award was presented at a luncheon in Washington on Friday.
Olmsted is a senior editor at UPI. Benjamin is now a national
correspondent at the daily Web magazine Salon.