The Waterbury Democrat., 1945-02-22
NAVY MEDICOS
 AT GUAM PAVE
 ROAD TO JAPAN
By EDWARD L. THOMAS United Press War Correspondent

| United Press War Correspondent
 Guam, Feb. 22-CUP) American scientists are fighting their own little war on this island. Their primary objective is to see that disease is eradicated as a Japanese ally, but they are also gathering valuable first-hand data that will serve toward making the postwar world a healthier one.
 Capt. T. M. Rivers of Forest Hills, N. Y, who is on leave from his civilian post as director of the Rockefeller hospital in New York, landed here with a staff of A officers and 226 enlisted men on Jan. 12. He is already set up in a 25-acre jungle camp that will be his advance headquarters for the Pacific Medical Research unit
 In a few short weeks Navy Sea- bees and doctors cleared the underbrush from the 25-acre plot between two field hospitals and began construction of more than 60 steel buildings. These will house the valuable scientific equipment that will not only be used to study diseases already encountered on the road to Japan but also will be prepared to take quick counter action against new diseases that medical men expect to find as our forces move northWard toward the Japanese homeland and China. Adm. McIntire Sought Best
 The idea was fostered by Vice Adm. Ross T. McIntire, USN, Presi- dent Roosevelt's personal physician and Chief of the Bureau of Medi- cine and Surgery of the Navy.
 we were fighting the war with the best equipmen. and material and Adm. McIntire decided we should also fight disease with the latest weapons" explained Capt. Rivers. "The experience out here in the Pacific has been that dis ease puts men out of action quicker than bullets. And you can't fight a war with sick soldiers"
 The project is financed by the Navy with a supplementary fund of $25,O00 donated by the Rocke- feller Foundation. Personnel in- clues some of the finest doctors in the United States.
 Tarpaulin- crates and boxes are scattered over the tenn porary encampment, containing some 5000 separate pieces of equip ment for the unit. Capt. Rivers saic he expects to complete the project sometime in March, but meanwhile he and his taff are working in temporary quarters.
 Several groups under Capt. Riv- CTS direction are inve: tigating dis eases such as malaria and scrub typhus in the South Pacific now. Another group is studying methods of spraying insecticides from air planes and i've still have a lot to learn about this" said Capt. Rivers
 Invasion Units Trained
 The doctors here are not going to do all their work in laboratories miles behind the front lines. Sev- eral mobile units are training to land with assault groups.
 A disease known as Schistomiasis is giving the scientists plenty of worry at the moment. Our forces haven't encountered 1t yet, but it's dead cinch they will eventually if they go to Formosa, China or Southern Japan, according to Capt. Rivers.
 The Schistomiasis germ breeds in snails and rice paddles and if a human being so much as washes hi; hands in water polluted by this germ he's almost certain to become infected, Capt. Rivers explained
 "The germ settles in the liver and the intestines and persons in- fected literally bleed to death in acute cases"
 But while concentrating on fight ing diseases that might hold up the progress of the war, Capt. Rivers and his staff also are study ing diseases prevalent on this island such as tuberculosis, amoebic dystentery, hookworm and dengue fever, that if successfully counter ] Wi!. make the tropics a more healthier place to live in than they have ever been in the past.