Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1948-07-13
Where Ignorance Is Deadly
1t Is the Chief Obstacle to Successful Campaign
To Wipe Out the Plague of Gonorrhea
By Crosby Noyes

American Army doctors, seeking to control
the spread Of typhus in certain Central Eu-
ropean areas during World War II, found that
many Of the peasants refused to be deloused.
The peasants, it seemed. believed the lice
brought them good luck. They would hide .
few before entering the delousing chamber.
recovering them afterwards and restoring
them to their time-honored homes
American doctors in the United States today
are faced with q dsturbingly similar situation
over another disease.
In Washington last year there were 12,504
cases of eonorrhes reported to the Health
Department and an estimated additional
$4,000 were unreported.
Faced with the fact that eonorrhea is one
of the great public health menaces today,
American doctors are setting out theoretically
to stamp out the disease.
They are well armed. Penicillin is just about
as fatal to the gonococcus as DOT is to the
louise. 1t kills the microbe in few hours after
q single injection. The treatment Is painless
and quick; penicillin recently has become
plentiful and inexpensive.
In fact, medicine today Is in q position to
ring down q final curtain on q human trag-
edy almost as old as the race itself. Chinese
records 1000 years old testify to the belief
that the disease was prevalent then. Greek,
Roman and Hindu writings bear witness to
the fact that gonorrhea was doing the same
thing to men and women then that it is doing
today-crippling, binding, causing sterility
and sometimes DEATH
The fight against the disease, on the other
hand. is very modern history 1t was some
time in the Middle Ages that the connection
between gonorrhea and sexual intercourse was
recognized. Not until the latter part OF the
Nineteenth Century was it generally accepted
as q communicable disease.
Only within the past few years have doc
tors had effective weapons against the gonococ-
Gus ITSELF Even the sulfa drugs, hailed as
cure in years preceding World War II, had
discouraging disadvantages 1t was not until
the one-shot penicillin treatment was devel-
oped in 1913 that the doctors knew they were
on the home stretch. The one shot, they
found, cured nine out Of 10 cases Immediately
The remaining 10 per cent responded to adj
ditional injections
Effect of New Drugs
person might think that once he had the
cure the rest would be easy. 1t has worked
with other diseases that way. The develop
ment Of new drugs has cut the rate Of influ-
enza in the District from l 800 reported cases
in 1914 to 80 in 1947; scarlet fever from $500
to 403; measles from 5000 to 500. Even
syphilis, which, comes second to gonorrhea in
prevalence here, has been cut nearly in half
from e,317 cases to 3,S67-in the past four
years.
In the same period. in spite Of the cure, the
rate of gonorrhea in Washington has risen
more than 100 per cent. from 5,l79 cases in
1914, to 12,s04 cases last year. 1t has risen
600 per cent since 1941. If the rise continues
officials estimate that some $1,000 persons will
be admitted to clinics for gonorrhea IN 1850
Public health men, trying to discover the
reason for these nightmare statistics. point
out the fact that the limited supply of peni-
cillin was tied up by the Army during the war
years, and since then. until very recently. has
been scarce and expensive They also note
the growth in population in the city during the
same period.
The basic explanation, however, lies with
the people themselves. The simple fact is that
up until now, the people, like the European
peasants, have preferred the disease to the
cure.
Ignorance fear, shame and social taboos