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DISEASE CUBED BY DISEASE

| 1 MALARIAL INJECTION FOR faralysis. HEALTH MINISTRY’S MOSQUITOES. The treatment of paralysis 1 by inoculating paralytic persons with malaria germs, mentioned by Dr. Wag. ner von Jauregg, the Viennese psychologist, at the Medical Congress at Wiesbaden, has been practised m recent years with consideraole success in Britain, and is now being carried out for the Board of Conti ol in public mental hospitals under the auspices of the Ministry of Health. Th e malaria injection is used in certain cases of general paralysis, the method adopted being to allow the patient to. be bitten by mosquitoes which are infected with the malaria parasite. The infected mosquitoes are taken by an officer of the Ministry of Heait-i in sealed cases' to. the asylums, where the treatment is to bo given. They arQ starved for some time before being applied to the patient, who, if bitten and infected, develops in the course of a fortnight a very high temperature and the usual symptoms of malaria. Whenever it is thought necessary the patient is >segregated in a room with the doors and windows covered with gauze to prevent his being bitten by native mosquitoes or flies which might carry, and spread the infection.

A Harley street physician, discussing the treatment, in an interview with a representative of, the “Observer,” explained that it 1 must be one particular kind of malaria that is used for the injection—namely, that known as Benign Tertain. in certain earlier experiments, the sub. tertian, a much more' virulent form, was occasionally used, with results that proved fatal, and this, he said, “has deterred people from using what appears to b e a very wonderful discovery—a disease curing a disease.” * Recruited from Romney Marsh. The original method employed' in Britain was to infect paralytic patients in asylums with malaria, and then to take some' of their blood, dilute it slightly, and inject it into others. There were certain difficulties in this form of the treatment. It was found, for example, that the parasite dies out in the blood directly it becomes cold,, and cannot there. , fore be transmitted to any distance. There is also a strong prejudice against allowing a patient to be in. jected wijdi the blood of another whoso antecedents he does not know. “Therefore,” this authority went on to say, “the. Ministry of Health have undertaken, to keep the mosquitoes on the premises. This they do by artificially breeding them and hatching them in captivity. The stock, which is recruited from Romney Marsh, are allowed to feed on some of the paralytic patients in lunatic asylums, and are kept in specially.constructcd cages, until they become infected, for others. During the period they have to be kept at the correct degree of warmth and moisture. “The most refined method of ap. plying the treatment is thus to allow the patient to be bitten by one of the Ministry of Health mosquitoes. The experiment is rendered difficult sometimes by the mosquito refusing to bite. It has been found necessary for this reason to kill the mosquito, dissect the head, and remove the salivary glands in x order to inject them into th e patient to be treated. “The best results are those that have been obtained by certain observers in Liverpool, where observations have now been conducted' over a period of four years. They report that, although a certain number ot patients have died —patients suffering from general paralysis, who might have been expected to die in any case—about 25 per cent, oi those treated in this manner have regained their powers and are able once more to resume civil life. In my own personal experience I know of two cases, both of which have returned to civil employment, and . all the signs of the disease from which they suffered have so far as can be ascertained disappeared. Tlie Worse the Better. “It is too much to hope that results so satisfactory as this can be obtained in advanced cases of general paralysis. It is in the early stages of the disease, as Dr. Yon Jauregg has found, that the most is to be hoped from the treatment. And, taking the world generally, 25 per cent, represents the proportion of most favourable results. “It is difficult at present to say whether the eur e will be permanent, because even under the old conditions, persons suffering from general paralysis had lucid intervals, which sometimes lasted for several years. It may be, therefore, another five or six years bcfor e we can say whether or not patients can be treated successfully with malarial injections.

“From the experience that has been gained so far, it seems that the more malarial attacks the patient suffers from the better it is for him. It is generally found that after inoculation a period of ten or twelve days elapses before the fever starts. The patient then suffers daily from periodic attacks of fever, and the higher the temperature rises the better is the therapeutic result. If he can stand it, h e should be allowed to go through ten or twelve of these attacks before they are checked by quinine. A much smaller -dose of th e quinine will cure this artificially acquired malaria than that which will be efficacious for treating the disease in its natural form. This has given rise to a great deal of speculation by those interested in the subject.”

This malari«U treatment, it was

added, has made great strides on the Continent, since th e date of Jauregg’s first experiments in-1887, tout in Britain it is still, despite the interest of the Ministry of Health, rather spasmodic.

Permanent link to this item
Hononga pūmau ki tēnei tūemi

https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/SNEWS19260702.2.15

Bibliographic details
Ngā taipitopito pukapuka

Shannon News, 2 July 1926, Page 3

Word count
Tapeke kupu
941

DISEASE CUBED BY DISEASE Shannon News, 2 July 1926, Page 3

DISEASE CUBED BY DISEASE Shannon News, 2 July 1926, Page 3

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