Two Louisiana State university medical school doctors have reported success in testing for human use a drug capable of destroying four of the major human intestinal parasites and effectively attacking the fifth. Dr. J, C. Swartzwelder, professor of parasi-tology, and Dr. William W. Frye, dean of tropical medicine, have recounted in the Journal of the American Medical Association the encouraging results they and their associates observed after prescribing the drug dithiazanine for more than 400 patients in Louisiana and Costa Rica during two years of study.
Action of dithiazanine against certain intestinal parasites in dogs, cats and mice was discovered by an Indianapolis, Ind., drug manufacturer. The drug was sent to LSU for clinical testing.
Parasitic infections are a serious health problem for humans in many sections of the United States, but the greatest field for the new medical weapon will be tropical and subtropical countries. In some rural areas of Latin America about 97 per cent of all school children reportedly are infected by one or more of the intestinal parasites against which dithiazanine has been found effective.
Louisiana can be proud that its state medical school researchists have contributed as a Christmas gift to the health of mankind evidence of the workability of a new "wonder" drug.
