Word: tors
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1960-1969
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
This time trouble had come in an unexpected form. The deadly bacillus was not a familiar strain of Vibrio cholerae (or Vibrio comma, from its shape), for which a vaccine of sorts is available. Instead, it was a strain of the El Tor group of vibrios,* one which had previously confined its disease-causing activities to the Indonesian island of Celebes. Once this kind of El Tor got under way, it seemed unstoppable. It secured beachheads in South Korea, Taiwan, Red China and Burma. Last year it reached South Viet Nam and Japan. Then it spread into Iran and Uzbekistan...
Cholera in 1965 is a far more complex problem than medical men expected it to be. And with El Tor taking over, the oldest plague is becoming one the newest...
Tougher & Faster. El Tor, long underestimated, is now bullying "classical" cholera off the map. In the British Medical Journal, Calcutta's Dr. Sachimohan Mukerjee reports evidence that if old-fashioned cholera and El Tor bacilli are put into the same test tube or invade the same human victim, El Tor will completely crowd out the "classical" vibrios. Not only is it a tougher bug; it also spreads faster. And a recovered El Tor victim may remain a menace by continuing to excrete the bacilli for as long as six months, as against a mere three weeks after classical cholera...
Complete prevention of cholera by cleaning up or isolating contaminated water supplies-a more effective method of prevention than the wearing of fantastic anti-cholera costumes with a windmill on the hat (see cut]-no longer seems feasible. El Tor bacilli have spread too far, over millions of square miles. Vaccination would seem to be the next best step, but after 80 years experts still cannot agree on how good the vaccines are, or how to make the best one. Though injections of killed bacilli, as in the vaccines now generally used, stimulate the production of antibody in the blood...
...military medics are considering an attempt to develop an El Tor vaccine, but the need for it in U.S. forces is not clearly defined. Although El Tor is now established among the civilians of South Viet Nam, there has not been a single case among U.S. forces. This relative safety comes partly from luck, the medics concede, and partly from the fact that the old-fashioned vaccine they are now using seems to confer some protection against El Tor. The most important reason, say the doctors, is that cholera, like smallpox, rarely takes hold unless its victim is debilitated...