Evening star., 1948-05-11
By Thomos R. Henry
S~i..e~ Ed;t.r sf rhs Stmy

Possibility Of curing syphilis with
a single shot OF penicillin was held
out by Public Health Service workers
before the Fourth International
Congresses of Tropical Medicine and
Malaria here today.
The accepted treatment now b an
injection Of the drug mixed In pea
nut oil and beeswax every "A hours
for 10 days. Previously 1t was neces-
sary to keep the patient In . hos
pital and give a shot every two
hours for eight days.
Either of these treatments, 1t was
stressed by DR.. j. r. Heller, jr., chief
of the veneral disease division Of the
Public Health Service, can be ex-
pected to produce cures with q re-
lapse rate Of less than 10 per cent,
If cases are caught early enough.
DR.. Haller explained the Public
Health Service, as well as other in
vestigators, Is working with q new
penicillin product to establish its
possible efficacy as q single treat
ment in the cure of syphilis.
But even at the best, 1t will take
years before we can be sure that
any single treatment cure will be
successful" he said.
For a century a fly has kept white
men out of more than 100000
square miles Of the worlds richest
land, so far as major settlement and
development Is concerned.
This bug is the tsetse fly, carrier
OF African sleeping sickness. and
the region is most of East Africa.
1t is a serious disease for man, al
though 1t can be successfully dag
nosed and treated. It stands chiefly
in the way Of civilization, however.
because of its attacks on cattle and
horses.
Areas Being Cleared.
Nevertheless, step by step the in
sect is being driven back, DR.. P. A.
Buxton of the London School of
Tropical Medicine told the congress.
A 00-square-mile area has been
cleared in Nigeria by the British
Sleeping Sickness Control Service.
It now support $4,000 healthy people
with cattle. Six thousand square
miles have been cleared in Rhodesia
It now is being thrown open to
European settlement, and 30 stock
and dairy farms already have been
established.
In Tanganyika about 1000 square
miles have been cleared and the
area now is supporting 10000 peo-
Pile. Large numbers of cattle thrive
where previously there was none.
Identification of two viruses caus-
ing yellow jaundice, one Of the most
serious maladies encountered In the
Army during the war, was reported
to the scientists.
When the disease first broke cut
on an epidemic scale among troops
in Africa, 1t was not ct first sup
posed to be the result Of any virui
but to result in some way from vel.
low fever shots.
Tested on Volunteers.
Strong evidence for at least two
Of these minute disease-carryins
agents, which primarily affect the
liver, was presented by DR.. John
r. Neefe of the University Of Penn
sylvania. He carried out q series OF
experiments with human volunteers.
One virus, DR.. Neefe reported,
caused severe jaundice in from Is
to 81 days. The disease broke out
suddenly With high fever. The
other required from 90 to 1856 days
to produce any symptoms. These
generally were milder than In the
first type.
Both viruses caused jaundice
when injected into the blood stream
but only the first was effective when
given by mouth. An immune serum
prepared from the blood Of patients