Evening star., 1944-11-17

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LOT the Russian steppes died of
|typhus. Typhus has been the dead
Lest Of wars diseases. The threat
was worse than Marshal Kessel-
rings panzer divisions or the swarms
]of bombing Luftwaffe.
i Gen, Bayne-Jones, formerly Of
the Yale Medical School, who =
head Of the American Typlius Com
mission as well as the Army's
deputy chief OF preventive medicine,
told the story IN detail to scat
tered audience yesterday In the
theater Of the National Museum In
Constitution avenue ut Tenth street
NV.
Millions vulnerable.
Southern Italy used to have ty-
phus epidenics occasionally. But
there had not been one there In IL
years. The population was not inl-
mune. "War, human misery, un-
dcrnourishment, unavoidable un-
cleanliness, crowding and wide
spread louise infestation," the gen.
eral said, made Naples teemins
millions vulnerable.
Ruling Naples out Of bounds for
soldiers was no solution of the
military problem. Naples was the
port Of supply and 1t was necessary
to keep the economy Of the people
behind the lines from complete
collapse.
| Closing Of movie houses could
not prevent mass assemblies. Ger
man bombers were crowding people
into the shelters while the epidemic
was at its height.
There were new weapons for the
hight There is . typhus vaccine.
But more than 100000 persons
live In Southern Italy. The best
that could be done was to vaccinate
the Leaders, the police, the govern
ment officials and the workers on
the docks.
Spread by Body Louse.
The typhus infection Is spread by
the body louise. Delousing large
populations has been q terrific task
heretofore In typhus infected COM
munities. Tents have to be set up
for men and women because they
have to undress and bathe with
medicated soap. Fuel is . problem.
The places must be heated and the
clothes steamed to kin the lice.
But the DOT gun won the battle
won 1t In the first round. IN
December, 1943. there were 90 new
cases . day. BY January 3, 1914,
they were over the hump. The
typhus fighters, headed by the
American and British military COM
mands, the typhus team Of the
Rockefeller Foundation and the
American typhus commission-joint
Aarmy, Navy and United States
Public Health Service, took the
DOT guns to every typhus home.
They powdered every one within
and all persons who were CON
tacts"-even remote contacts.
All they had to do with the
DDT gun as Gen. Bayne-Jones
demonstrated was to blow a little Of
the powder down the neck, up the
sleeves and under the waist. It
does not irritate the skin. And
the clothes hold the DDT and con-
ttnue to kill any new lice arriving
on the person for Q month. Isola-
ton Is no longer considered neces-
sary for typhus victims. It is only
necessary to kill the lice on the
victim and his contacts and clear
the home OF louse infestation. Then
the disease is no longer catching.
Turned the Tide.
That turned the tide. They went
on and deloused $500 900 persons.
But the rate Of incidence had fallen
and the disease was no longer epi-
demic when this great mass de-
lousing occurred. Total number Of
cases were not much more than
1000. Only two soldiers Of the Allied
Armies were infected.
DDT, dichloro- -diphenyl trichlo-
roethane, was synthesized by Otmar
zeidler, . young chemistry student
In Strasbourg In 1874 just after the
capital Of Alsace was taken over
by the Germans. It has been on
the shelf since. A Swiss firm, the
Geigy Co, which owned the patents
did SOM work with it to relieve
animal rom flies before the war.
The United States Department Of
Agriculture increased work on 1t
when the Japanese attack cut Oh
importation Of pyrethrum, the ex-
tract from Japanese chrysanthe-
mum-like flowers that was the basis
OF Fit and other insecticides.
The Army experimented with per-
centages Of DDT, which is a poison.
In neutral dust, to arrive at mixtures
strong enough to kill insects that
would not harm soldiers.
New Vj-tas Opened.
1t was the cutting OF OF pyrethrum
that led to the adoption of some
thing 50 much better that 1t may
open continental vistas to habitation
such Is the highlands Of East Africa,
one Of the pleasantest areas of the
world, but hitherto uninhabitable
because Of the tsetse fy and the
deadly sleeping sickness that comes
from its bite.
Brig. Gen. James 8. Simmons,
chief Of Army's preventive medicine
service. wrote In paper read at the
National Academy meeting:
1T Is my belief that DDT gives
promise Of being one of the greatest
contributions ever made to world
health"
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