THE TREATMENT OF TRYPANOSOMIASIS WITH ESPECIAL 

 REFERENCE TO SURRA. 1 



By Richard P. Strong and Oscar Teague. 

 {From the Biological Laboratory, Bureau of Science, Manila, P. I.) 



One of the most important problems that confronts the scientific 

 medical world to-day is the treatment of trypanosomiasis. Sleeping 

 sickness is claiming its thousands of victims each year in Africa. New 

 districts are becoming infected and the disease is on the increase in 

 certain others in spite of the precautions that are being taken. From 

 an economic point of view the loss of horses, cattle and camels from 

 surra and other forms of trypanosomiasis is very large. India, Egypt, 

 Java and the Philippines have suffered severely in this respect. The losses 

 during the epidemic which began in Manila in 1901 amounted to several 

 millions of dollars. Almost all of the large islands of the Philippines 

 have been shown to be infected from time to time with surra, and the 

 loss in horses and cattle has been constant and of no small magnitude. 

 From a theoretical point of view, studies in the treatment of trypanoso- 

 miasis have led to the development of a new field in therapeutics, viz, 

 that of "chemotherapy." Since the trypanosomata are motile and live 

 for several hours in defibrinated blood, it is possible to study the action 

 of various chemical substances upon them; such of these substances as 

 prove to be effective against the parasites in vitro may then be tested by 

 injection into infected laboratory animals. By these methods it can 

 readily be determined whether or not changes of a given nature in the 

 constitution of an organic compound improve its efficacy against the 

 trypanosomata. 



In the following discussion we shall not consider the development of 

 the therapy of trypanosomiasis in chronological order, nor attempt to 

 consider the entire literature upon this subject, but, for the sake of 

 clearness, we shall arrange the more important methods of treatment in 

 the following order and discuss each separately : 

 I. Serum therapy and vaccination. 

 II. Treatment with aniline and other dyes. 



III. Treatment with compounds of arsenic. ■ 



IV. Treatment with compounds of antimony. 



V. Treatment with a combination of two or more drugs. 



1 Read at the first biennial meeting of the Far Eastern Association of Tropical 

 Medicine, at Manila, March 7, 1910. 



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