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Show HEALTH PROGRESS Newest Drug Fights Fever LOUISVILLE. KY.-The army be- lieves Chloromycetin will make the country much safer against ty-phoid ty-phoid in wartime. This was indicated by Col. William Wil-liam Spencer Stone, Washington, chief of army medical research, who came here to discuss communicable-disease control in a lecture sponsored by Alpha Omega Alpha, medical fraternity of the University of Louisville school of medicine. Colonel Stone was graduated grad-uated at the U. of L. medical school in 1929. Colonel Stone pointed out that enteric diseases those transmitted by food or water are being given special attention by army researchers. research-ers. The diseases have low incidence inci-dence now, he said, but if safeguards safe-guards such as water and milk controls were lifted, the number of cases would skyrocket because the population has developed little immunity. In a similar situation, a breakdown break-down of water sanitation caused 5,000 cases of typhoid in Berlin after World War II. Drug Fights Typhoid Chloromycetin would play a big role in case of a similar threat to the health of the people in the U. S. Should water protection fail, the drug could hold the fort against typhoid until proper purification safeguards could be set up again. Chloromycetin is rapidly being developed to the point where it can conquer these diseases in two days: Typhoid, typhus, Rocky Mountain spotted fever, undulant fever, and others. It Is an antibiotic which means It prevents reproduction of germs instead of killing them. It is the purified extract of a fungus found in a soil in Venezuela. Scientists under Colonel Stone's medical research and development board discovered potentialities of using the drug against typhoid and, some other diseases. Ray Method Used Experimenting in another direction, direc-tion, his researchers have developed de-veloped an ultraviolet-ray method, of disinfecting blood plasma to prevent pre-vent jaundice being transmitted by it. Heretofore, Colonel Stone said,' about 5 per cent receiving plasma ran the risk of getting jaundice, too. The army collaborated in this study with the University of Pennsylvania. Penn-sylvania. Colonel Stone said army scientists scien-tists keep foremost in mind the status of diseases as related to the entire population so they can estimate esti-mate what would happen in case of an "adverse situation." As contrasted to enteric diseases dis-eases which are fairly well con-1 trolled now, respiratory diseases are as prevalent today as ever. There are better treatments, Colonel Stone said, but the city-rural city-rural populations mingle more and cause greater spread of infections. Respiratory diseases also occur at a relatively younger age now, ha reported. |