Another Cure For

Malaria

STILL they come. Two Chicago doc tors have discovered another new “permanent” cure for malaria. It is so new that it has no name yet—only a number. No. 13,272—if you are interested.

Sufferers from malaria may be par doned if they are a little bit sceptical of this new discovery. They will no doubt remember all the other drugs, since quinine, that have been hailed as malarial cure-alls. First plasma-quin, then ate brin, and lastly paludrine.

Plasma-quin was an experiment of the late 20’s; atebrin (invented by German scientists) was developed in the early and mid thirties, treated, at first, with the exaggerated caution given all lethal in struments; then, as familiarity bred con tempt, swallowed with wild abandon. It would be a pretty problem for an up-and coming statistician to work out just how many billions of atebrin nills were swallowed by American and Australian troops in New Guinea during the Pacific war. A great deal of propaganda was churned out by the US Medical Corps to counteract the GI notion that atebrin made males sterile or impotent (or both).

This seemed to worry the GI’s a great deal. It maybe worried the Aussies, but they didn’t say so much about it.

Atebrin carried us over the early war years, then they invented paludrine. This was supposed to be a certain remedy and a reliable prophylactic but a few months ago members of the BMA were having second thoughts about paludrine. It was stated that in certain cases it was not as effective as atebrin. It did not, however, turn patients green-yellow, which was a drawback of atebrin.

Now we have No. 13,272. Dr. A. S.

Alving and Dr. John Arnold, the two Chicago doctors who are responsible for it, were given a grant equal to £2,000,000 Australian by the USA government, and they used, as guinea-pigs, 300 convicts from the Illinois State Prison. It is claimed that a single dose of the drug will cure malaria in three days.

Here’s hoping they are right.