Oct 2, 2014
(To listen to interview, CLICK on 'pod' icon next to title)
KGNU's Claudia Cragg speaks here with Karen Masterson on her fascinating historical exposé, The Malaria Project. The is the story of America's secret mission to combat malaria during World War II—a campaign modeled after a German project which tested experimental drugs on men gone mad from syphilis.
Karen M. Masterson, a journalist
turned malaria researcher, uncovers the complete story behind this
dark tale of science, medicine and war. Illuminating, riveting and
surprising, The Malaria Project captures the ethical
perils of seeking treatments for disease while ignoring the human
condition.
American war planners, foreseeing
the tactical need for a malaria drug, recreated the German model,
then grew it tenfold. Quickly becoming the biggest and most
important medical initiative of the war, the project tasked dozens
of the country’s top research scientists and university labs to
find a treatment to remedy half a million U.S. troops incapacitated
by malaria.
Spearheading the new U.S. effort was
Dr. Lowell T. Coggeshall, the son of a poor Indiana farmer whose
persistent drive and curiosity led him to become one of the most
innovative thinkers in solving the malaria problem. He recruited
private corporations, such as today's Squibb and Eli Lilly, and the
nation’s best chemists out of Harvard and Johns Hopkins to make
novel compounds that skilled technicians tested on birds. Giants in
the field of clinical research, including the future NIH director
James Shannon, then tested the drugs on mental health patients and
convicted criminals—including infamous murderer Nathan
Leopold.
By 1943, a dozen strains of malaria
brought home in the veins of sick soldiers were injected into these
human guinea pigs for drug studies. After hundreds of trials and
many deaths, they found their “magic bullet,” but not in a U.S.
laboratory. America 's best weapon against malaria, still used
today, was captured in battle from the Nazis. Called chloroquine,
it went on to save more lives than any other drug in
history.