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...abandoning the only leprosarium on the continental U.S., at Carville, La. (390 patients). All states, except New York and Massachusetts, require isolation of leprosy victims. Patients are discharged when twelve monthly tests show no evidence of the leprosy bacillus. There is still no specific cure, but sulfone drugs like promin and diasone (close chemical relatives of the sulfas) speed up the time when patients can be released as noninfectious...
Carville has had excellent results with three sulfa drugs: Promin, Diasone and Promizole (streptomycin, now under test, also looks promising). Last year the leprosarium discharged 37 patients, this year it will discharge 40 or more. Said its medical chief, Dr. Guy H. Faget: "The sulfones have stopped even the most hopeless cases in their tracks...
...McCoy, head of Louisiana State University's preventive medicine department. (They long ago dropped the traditional chaulmoogra oil as worthless.) Because leprae bacilli are tough, and most of Carville's patients are in advanced stages of the disease, recovery is slow. But heavy daily injections of Promin (or doses of Diasone or Promizole pills) gradually clear out the bacilli, reduce swellings, heal lesions...
Last week a tiny ray of hope came from the National Leprosarium at Carville, La. which has been trying out Promin, one of the first sulfa drugs used against tuberculosis (the germs of the two diseases are much alike). In three years 32,000 daily injections were given to 137 leper volunteers. Result: 58% improved. In 10% of those treated over a year, leprosy bacteria disappeared; in another 30%, bacteria were reduced in number. (The tendency among untreated lepers is for bacteria to increase...
Those who were dosed the longest and could stand the largest doses improved the most. (One trouble with Promin: treatment sometimes has to stop because it causes anemia.) Only two patients got worse in spite of treatment, and their cases were very advanced. The Leprosarium doctors think improvement under Promin is "definite." The next step is to try out the newer, better TB drugs-diasone and streptomycin...