Evening star., 1952-06-09
By Thomos R. Henry
SfoY StoFf CoFYespondent

turieS two enthusiastically minute
animals, the plasmodium Of ma
laria and the ricksettia of typhus.
have been mankind's worst killers.
They have flourished in war, ac-
counting for MANIFOLD more lives
than enemy weapons.
Even during the last war more
than a half-million American SOL
diers became malaria victims and,
at least temporarily, were out of
action.
The Nation may stop worrying
over this particular disease in
future wars because of the re-
markable progress in the last 10
years, DR.. L. T. Coggeshall Of the
University of Chicago told the
American Medical Association at
its opening scientific assembly here
today.
Due to New Drug.
This is due primarily to a new
drug pentaquine, based on the
Quinine molecule. Quinine is the
oldest of malaria remedies.
The start of the last war, DR..
Coggeshall said, found this coun-
try in bad position so far as
malaria was concerned. The sup
plies of quinine were short. There
was a preventative drug. Atabrine
This was expensive and difficult
to SyntheSiZe. BY 1914, cheaper
and more efficient methods had
been devised and America was
supplying the world. In the same
period two other effective sup
pressive drugs were introduced,
Chloroquin and camoquin. Tested
on servicemen with relapsing ma
laria it was found that two tablets
a week kept them free of attacks.
There was no toxic reaction or
coloring Of the skin, one of the
major objections to atabrine,
which was a dye.
All these. however, were only
suppreSsiveS. At the start of the
war there was one drug for which
cures had been claimed. This was
the German product, plasmochin.
This was quite poisonous. Penta-
quine was devised to take its
place. It is much less toxic. 1T
has been thoroughly tested on
volunteer Illinois penitentiary pris-
onerS, who allowed themselves toI
be bitten by malaria carrying
mosquitoes from the South Pacific.
Now, DR.. Coggeshall said, an
even better drug, primaquine, has
been synthesized at Columbia. I'll
also has been tested on prisoners
and found superior to anything
yet known.
1T is reliable" he said, both
for prevention and as a curative
drug"
DDT Against Mosquitoes.
An important factor in malaria
prevention, he said, has been the
use Of DDT to eliminate mos
quitoes. Five million homes were
sprayed between 1945 and 1850.
Largely due to this, the malaria
cases in the United States dropped
from about $4,000 to 1000 a year.
In some Indian provinces the rate
dropped from 20 to 2 per cent.
There has been a quite similar
story with the house-carried
typhus. ancient scourge of armies.
During the First War it nearly
decimated the population of
Serbia. During the last war a.
great epidemic, for which sta
tistics are not available, broke
out in the Russian Army. I'll
struck the American forces in
Naples, but was halted in it's
tracks. This has been called the
miracle of Naples"
But since the war, DR.. Cogges-
hall said, a remarkable new drug,
chloramphenical, has been devised,
largely due to work started at |
Walter Reed Hospital, which will |
reduce typhus mortality close to
zero.
Rat-Carried Plague.
Rat-carried plague, which al
most depopulated Northern Europe
in the Middle Ages, still remains
a problem for armies, the speaker
said. If caught on the first day
of infection it can be cured in
from "a to 48 hours with chloro-
phenicol or other antibiotics.
A war disease which became of
considerable Importance in the
South Pacific and threatens troops
in Korea is Schistosomiasis, due to
the organisms known as flukeS. |