Malaria Drug

Success Claimed for New Malaria Drug

TWO hundred cases of malaria in Ceylon have been cured by Dr. A. T. Simeon, an Englishman, who used the drug ate brim musonal, the Colombo correspon dent of the “Daily Mail” states.

Two injections, it is stated, are sufficient to prevent a relapse, in contrast with the long treatment necessary with quinine.

The Ceylon Government, impressed with the success of the new drug, proposes to treat 50,000 sufferers.

Dr. Simeon, accompanied by his young German wife and one assistant, works in the jungle villages, where thousands clamour for treatment.

Supplies of the drug are exhausted, but more is coming by air from Germany, where it was discovered.

Drug Known For Some Years.

Claims of the new malaria drug by London users were described as “far too optimistic” by Dr. Richard Green, bac teriologist of the Institute for Medical Research, Federated Malay States, who was interviewed by the “Sun” in Sydney on March 9.

Dr. Green, who has used the drug him self, said he could not agreed that two injections were sufficient to prevent a relapse.

The correct name of the drug was “ate brim,” he said. It was introduced by the Bayer Meister Lecus in 1932. A yel low drug, it was the first synthetic sub stitute for quinine produced.

The relapse rate, compared with treatment with quinine, was distinctly lower. The new drug, however, cost two and a half times as much. It had been successfully injected, but the usual method was to take it by tablets.

Dr. Green said malaria was still the major disease in the tropics. Progress is being made against it through the Gov ernment appointed trained malarialo gists. With a rainfall of 250 inches a year it is impossible to control all breed ing places, but the specialist can tell which of 300 odd species of mosquitoes is responsible.

Quinine had been the chief weapon against malaria since as early as 1660, Dr. Green added. During the war, how ever, there had been great difficulty in obtaining supplies of the bark from which it was extracted. Research had led to a substitute, first of plasmoquinine in 1926.

Now atebrim, the first real synthetic, was offered to the world.