Asiatic Cholera

As the stream of refugees boiled and eddied out of Burma last week, the roads to India were littered with stiff bodies, lying on their backs, their hands clutching the air. These were the corpses of cholera victims. In Mandalay (population, 135,000) alone the dread disease attacked 4,000 people.

Caused by comma-shaped bacteria known as Vibrio or Spirillum cholerae, which dwell in sewage-contaminated water, cholera drains body tissues of their fluids, causes intense vomiting, diarrhea and violent muscular spasms. More than a third of its victims shrivel up, turn dark grey or violet, die, sometimes within a few hours.

But there was no need to worry about the fleeing refugees carrying cholera to India; carrying cholera to India was like carrying coals to Newcastle. India, the home of cholera, in its best years suffers more than 70,000 deaths--97% of the known cholera deaths in the world.

Cholera is no longer as serious a military problem as it formerly was; it is far less of a menace to the Japanese army than Polish and Russian typhus is to the Germans. Reasons: 1) unlike typhus, cholera can be controlled by vaccination--repeated twice a year--in which the Japanese were pioneers; 2) while there is no specific treatment besides potassium permanganate pills, the spread of the disease can be checked by sterilizing drinking water, cooking all food. Typhus can be controlled only by exterminating lice.

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