The Kennewick courier-reporter. [volume] (Kennewick, Wash.) 1939-1949, 1943-06-17
Services Fight
Dread Malaria
Aided by Health Board,
They Battle Foe Called
AS Dangerous as Axis.

WASHINGTON.-T army and the
navy, backed by the U. S. Public
Health service, have been fighting
an unsung war against an enemy
which could defeat our troops with
out firing single shot and could
use our own airplanes for success
full invasion of our shores.
The enemy. which military men
declare can be as great an adver.
sary as the Japanese and the Ger
mans, is malaria.
So far. the army and navy, in the
field, have been fighting a great
holding action against the malady,
while the health agency guards our
coast against Misunderstanding mos
quitos coming in by airplane.
A holding action is all it can be,
for, while science knows how to re-
duce the possibility Of malaria and
how to treat it once it is contracted,
it does not yet possess the weapon
necessary for total defeat-a vac
cine that will. prevent it.
Push Tests for Weapon.
However, scientists in every cor
.ner of the United States and in many
tropical outposts, working for the
army and navy through the nation
al research council, are hunting for
the secret weapon" that will de-
feat malaria. They are experiment
ing, testing, observing, making use
of hundreds upon hundreds of herbs,
plants and chemicals. The magic
field Of sulfa drugs is being exam
ined. -@ ~ e..
So far they have nothing to re-
port. But some day, if and when they
discover an anti-malaria vaccine,
they will have won a great victory,
for malaria, while it does not have
the dread connotations of smallpox
and some of the other diseases al
ready conquered by science, is
great reaper of human life. sa
AL the things men know about
malaria and every means Of COM
batting it are being employed by the
army and navy to protect the men
who are fighting in some of the
worlds worst malarial spots. On
the home front the Public Health
service, through its Foreign Quar-
antine division, is "decontaminat-
ing" the planes that come back
from the malarial areas.
How Disease Is Spread.
The anopheline mosquito is the
cause Of malaria. The mosquito first
must bite an infected person; then,
using its bill like poisoned hypo-
dermic needle, it spreads the disease
to all whom it can bite.
When malaria strikes person he
becomes weak, shaky, subject TO
chills and fever. A sailor or sol
dier suffering from malaria obvi-
ously is no good as a fighting man.
Certain prophylaxis-namely, quiz
nine (supply sources of which are
now in the hands Of the Japanese)
and atabrine "a coal tar derivative
which the United States is making
ia huge quantities)-win control it
and, administered in vast doses I'M
der medical supervision, eventually
will cure or check it. Another chem
ical agent, plasmochin, will kill the
gametacytes, the reproductive form
Of the malaria parasite.
There is plenty of malaria in the
United States, particularly the south
ern parts, but the, Public Health
service keeps its vigil just the same.
So 400 uniformed quarantine of
ficers and sanitary inspectors stand
guard today at airports where planes
from overseas come in. They see
to it that planes, which already have
been sprayed with chemicals lethal
to mosquitoes, are sprayed again.
Passengers receive medical exami-
nations; those with malaria are per-.
mitted to enter the country, but they
must go straight to hospitals and
stay there until they are no longer
sources of infection.