Medicine: Agramonte v. Noguchi

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"Dr. Noguchi was one of the greatest bacteriologists of modern times; since his connection with the Rockefeller Foundation during the last quarter of the century, he made remarkable and most valuable contributions to the science of medicine in his chosen field; whatever problem he investigated, he was sure to make clear and his death has been a great loss to the world of science, but his work in yellow fever, from 1919 to the day of his decease, was practically valueless (except for methods of investigation of his own devising), and possibly harmful. "I say it was valueless, because during eight years he persisted in working with an organism (Leptospira icteroides), which he thought he had discovered, as the specific germ of yellow fever, that turned out to be the well-known cause of another disease (Weil's Disease), and not a Tropical disease at that: his work was harmful, because he prepared a so-called protective vaccine and a curative serum from his own leptospira, which he used many times, conveying thereby a false sense of security in some cases (the vaccinated ones), and no benefit in the others (where the serum was applied), inasmuch as it has been demonstrated that he did not have the specific germ of the disease (from which useful vaccine and sera can only be prepared), but another organism, one entirely foreign to yellow fever. This would appear laughable were it not for the tragedy that followed in its wake, since the vaccine or the serum thus prepared was not (could not be) effective in saving life; so the lives lost of Drs. Cross (Mexico); Stokes, Young and Noguchi (West Africa) and there is no record of many instances of vaccinations in Peru, Mexico or Brazil where they must have been equally unavailing. . . ." Dr. Agramonte, at a meeting of tropical specialists in 1924 at Kingston, Jamaica, presented his arguments in the presence of Dr.. Noguchi. Subsequently the arguments were substantiated by Drs. Sellard and Theiler who proved that Noguchi's leptospira gave the same reactions as the germ of Weil's Disease. Later, Drs. Gay and Sellard conducted another experiment. Mosquitoes, well infected with Noguchi's leptospira, when applied to three nonimmune individuals, failed to produce the least disturbance, showing that mosquitoes cannot transmit the leptospirae, though this is the only way in which yellow fever is transmitted in nature.