MALARIA BY AIR

Evening Post, Volume CXVII, Issue 21, 25 January 1934, Page 3

MALARIA BY AIR

Air transport history is filled with remarkable stories of emergencies met by the great speed of the ' modern- aeroplane, but few are as extraordinary as that surrounding the transport of malaria germs over the Perth-Adelaide service, operated by West , Australian Airways. A Perth doctor recently inquired whether the service could carry a flask from Melbourne to reach Perth within 50 hours of leaving, arid when told that it could be done, the position. Malaria germs were used in the treatment of brain, diseases,- he said, being injected into the patient arid allowed to work for a week or two beforo being removed, but not before a blood sample containing the living malarial strain had'been taken for th« treatment of other patients. There were, however, no. livinjj malarial strains available in Perth or in South Australia, nor were there enough patients for the strain to b,« kept alive by repeated transfers. In Melbourne there were sufficient patients available to enable strains to be kept alive for Jong • periods, and •so the malaria.germs required for Perth must come from Melbourne. But tnei difficulty in earlier years arose over transport, as the germs in many cases only lived for 50 hours,'and it'w.as impossible to transport patients injected with it owing to the expense, as their condi-. tion- necessitated travelling with es-

corts. Tho problem having hecn- solved by the existence of the East-West air leT: vice, a sample of blood is to be taken from a patient in Melbourne an hour "before the train leaves for Adelaide and will be handed to the pilot of the mail aeroplane leaving Para field on the following morning in a specially packed thermos flask. On the Sunday afternoon it will be dclivqred to the Perth medical authorities, and immediately used in an effort to cure a patient! under treatment.