USE OF QUININE RESTRICTED

Evening Star, Issue 24291, 4 September 1942, Page 6

USE OF QUININE RESTRICTED

LARGE QUANTITIES REQUIRED FOR ARMIES (P.A.) WELLINGTON, Sept. 3. In a statement to-night the Acting* Prime Minister. Mr Sullivan, referred to a notice published in this week’s ‘ Gazette ’ restricting the use of quinine except as an anti-malarial agent. He said that similar legislation had been enacted in America and Australia, and it had become necessary to control the distribution of this drug in the Dominion in order that supplies might be conserved for the _ lighting forces now engaged in malarial countries. Java, from which 90 per cent, of the world’s quinine supplies came in the past, is now under the control of the enemy. The Minister added that the importance of maintaining supplies of quinine could not be over-estimated, as, although other substitutes were used in the treatment of malaria, they were not as efficient as quinine. The quantity of quinine required for the armies fighting in tropical countries was very large, and he appealed for the co-opera-tion of all persons who hold stocks of quinine and its salts to comply with the ‘ Gazette ’ notice and conserve their stocks for anti-malarial purposes only.