MONKEYS AND DOCTORS

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 407, 16 July 1928, Page 12

MONKEYS AND DOCTORS

FIGHTING YELLOW FEVER DISCOVERY OF SERUM A report by the rockefeller Foundation deals with the part played by j a monkey found in India in combating I yellow fever in West Africa, states a ' New York message. Serum developed from this monkey is described as being “of the greatest importance.” Its possibilities are being thoroughly explored. When the Foundation’s workers went to Africa they had to learn: Whether the African form of yellow fever is the same as that of the Western Hemisphere: Whether it is spread by the same mosquito; What the microbe is; and Where the microbe carriers breed. In order to accomplish all this, the first step was to discover some animal that reacted to the disease similarly to man. So a systematic search began. The investigators tried guinea-pigs, white ! rats, white mice, pouched rats, kit- j tens, goats —all the local fauna—but | in vain. Then from Europe came a consign-1 ment of chimpanzees, crown monkeys from India, and some Brazilian mar- i mosets. When these animals were tested some of the Indian crown monkeys j proved susceptible. Blood of a person w r ho has recovered i from yellow fever yields a serum ! which contains protective elements j that make him immune to a second at- j tack. When a monkey was given some of this serum, at the same time with an injection of the yellow fever virus, he showed no signs of the infection. Now the Foundation workers are prepared to go ahead to combat the disease over a wide area, as has already been done in the West Indies and South America.