Show strange malady S W sweeping haiti doctors unable to discover the source of most baffling and fatal of diseases disease WHITE population IMMUNE aliment that kills natives native every year starts in the feet and spreads upward the body Df becoming swollen port au prince haiti haid the american occupation of haiti has served to albect medical research into one of the most baffling and perhaps fatal maladies known to modern medicine haiti Is a land of people rho rhe most conservative esti estimate eute based on DO 12 months of historical research into baitis mysterious disease Is that a million haitians Hait ians have succumbed to the malady in the last 50 years vears here where native productivity Is truly synonymous with extravagant tropical verdure a death rate of a year or nearly 1700 a month has not served to worry the nationals for the last five years american medical officers have noticed that lower caste haitians Hait ians sent to prison develop an alarming condition there and die at a rate of 0 from 50 to 90 per cent of those affected only during the last 12 months have the causes and effects of these alarming deaths been studied and recognized as a separate disease the discovery was made a year agaby dr W L mann surgeon of the united states navy a native of austin tex whose naval rank Is that of lieutenant commander supervising the entire medical department of the american contal trolled strolled gendarmerie Gendar merie merle dhaiti dr mann la Is a gr graduate of harvard medical school holder of several college degrees and lias las spent the major part of his bis time in tropical and subtropical countries his writings on preventive medicine and tropical disease and long experience equipped him to point out this mysterious dlease soon oon after his arrival in haiti cause undetermined aided by the medical officers of the gendarmerie gendar merie merle in an intensive research dr mann told the new york tribune correspondent here that nothing has developed which may definitely bitely determine the cause came of the disease which if ascertained and measures taken to combat would result in the saving of possibly more than lives annually the disease has three manifestations one of the most notable symptoms Is swelling of certain parts of the body the flesh becomes waterlogged or it usually begins in the feet and spreads upward another form Is the dry or emaciated type the patient shows marked emaciation and dwindles almost to akin and bones often changes to dry and vice versa it is not dot unusual to see a patient almost a living skeleton then develop a wet condition and with will the retention of fluid in the body gain 1 20 0 or SO 30 pounds in a few days and become so swollen up that recognition of his features Is difficult one of the mysteries of the disease Is that women seldom it if ever contract it t oze oae medical officer in haiti has observed more than 1000 cases without finding a single case among females at one time lime during docdor manns investigations women were supposed to be entirely immune finally three eases cases among women developed at the same dwelling place this combination of circumstances suggested a disease of an infectious nature disease appears appear suddenly A third manifestation of the malady Is that which suggests plague from 5 to 25 per cent of the fatalities take place in persons who do not dot complain of any symptoms A peron ron will appear la in perfect health then without warning fall in a faint and gradually expire though the grouping of haitian nc dr ar groes 8 in prisons called doctor manns attention to tile the disease he Is reasonably certain that it Is not due to confinement as in some prisons the malady Is entirely absent before the advent of americans in haiti the prisons were quagmires where here prisoners were thrown to subsist on food a smuggled in by relatives or starve today un under der american supervision the prisons are models of cleanliness but sanitation has bats lot cot served to eradicate the mysterious disease infection almost has been eliminated by research as the cause imprisonment possibly aids the malady but it Is not entirely responsible its as numerous natives who never saw a prison succumb research brought the possible cause to the question of faulty diet especially in prisons on this question doctor mann was noncommittal As he expressed it the evidence accumulated up to the present date regarding diet as a factor to its conflicting and unconvincing vin cing diet may or may not dot be at fault and I 1 am not prepared to express a definite opinion on this sub jeet eject many leads developed dr manns researches have developed many leads but when one theory seems see ins to have given the greatest encouragement coura gement it Is destroyed symptoms of the disease would seem to bring it nearer to berl berl than any other all al I 1 for the want of a better name doctor mann has called it berl berl on the theory that prison diet b rings brings about a greater manifestation during incarceration of haitians Hait ians than elsewhere the gendarmerie gendar merie merle doctors under unde r the direction of doctor mann have conducted extensive dietary experiments the re reports p orts show that diet variation has produced no do marked beneficial results either as a curative or preventive this has destroyed desti oyed a theory that war edema prevalent in prison camps due to faulty nourishment has a relation to pinedo berl beri berl As rice the cause of true berl berl Is not used to any degree in the prison food here the american doctors have endeavored to find a similar lack of vitamins in cornmeal a base of the ordinary haitian diet experiments to date have given no conclusive answer the institutional incidence nc e of the 11 haitian disease or its tendency to appear in epidemic form and to affect certain institutions suggested the nature of an infective agent at one time the bedbug was under suspicion numerous blood cultures a and n d cultures from finds animal inoculation and the like have produced only either negative or inconsistent results says the medical chief of the gendar merie malady decreases on one occasion five hospital corps men from the gendarmerie gendar merie natives volunteered to be bitten by bedbugs which had been fed on patients with the disease one of these volunteers developed dropsy six sir weeks later but this dropsy crobsy was attributed to other causes and the experiment was vias regarded as negative the prevalence of the malady has bhonn a progressive decrease during the last three months but whether this Is due to measures taken by doctor mann and his start staff can be determined only after further study and careful investigation the american naval surgeon explained that he be Is careful not to accept false encouragements because of the tendency of the disease to subside altogether in certain institutions and then suddenly crop out anew with more ser lovis results than ever col frederick II 11 wise united states marine corps commanding the and col john russell commanding the first marine brigade in haiti have shown great interest in doctor manns fight to locate the cause and combat baitis disease they have given all possible assistance and placed tile the entire line of re search unhampered under his direction the beneficent titina altruistic labor of doctor mann and his medical start staff Is one of many compensating factors in what wl nt appears to be a dald muddled dl ld situation in today theirs Is a work tor for hu humanity manty lu la the mile test sense st rise undoubtedly the states public health nud the rockefeller institute ute would woula tale take a certain interest in III tile disease doctor tor mabrl ann i hopes however with the cooperation of ouch auch institutions nod with the utilization of such additional facil atlea that the results of sustained efforts will serve to eradicate a scourge that kills such au ass ati appall palling log number of Hait haitians ians every year st SC for far as known haills mysterious never has affected a white man |