Stale Antitoxin

At Wilkes-Barre, Pa., two days before Christmas, Daniel Holuk, 5, choked to death when a yellowish leathery membrane plugged his windpipe. Diphtheria. George Washington choked to death in much the same way. So did Josephine, Napoleon Bonaparte' first wife. But Daniel Holuk should not have died. For in 1883-84 Edwin Klebs and Friedrich August Johannes Loeffler, scientists working in a happy Germany, discovered the bacillus which produces the diphtheria toxin (poison). And in 1894 Emil von Behring, another honorable German scientist, invented an antitoxin, the injection of which causes the yellowish membrane to slough off and saves the victims of diphtheria from strangulation.

At Wilkes-Barre, Dr. Stanley Henry Rynkiewicz gave suffocating Daniel Holuk an ample dose of antitoxin in ample time to save his life. But the child died. Puzzled, Dr. Rynkiewicz studied the label on the phial in which the useless antitoxin had been packaged.

Antitoxin comes from the blood of a horse which has been inoculated with diphtheria bacilli. The antitoxin must be used within two years after it is drawn from the horse's veins. Otherwise it loses its potency. Therefore every container of antitoxin (and of every other serum or vaccine) must be cautiously labeled with an "expiration date."

The doctor detected tampering with the expiration date on the antitoxin phials which had been filled by the old, reputable Gilliland Laboratories at Marietta, Pa. Promptly he sent a warning to the State Department of Health.

January came. Governor Gifford Pinchot went out of office with his Republican henchmen. Governor George Howard Earle assumed office with his Democratic henchmen. And in the shuffling of politicians Dr. Rynkiewicz' warning received no attention.

Then a suffocating child named Tumcavag, at Luzerne, near Wilkes-Barre, failed to respond to an injection of diphtheria antitoxin made by the Gilliland Laboratories. Dr. Rynkiewicz, whom the child's baffled doctor called for consultation, angrily pushed the Gilliland antitoxin aside, used some from another biological laboratory, and saved the child's life.

Fortnight ago a State employe died of diphtheria in Harrisburg, practically under Governor Earle's nose. He, too, had received Gilliland antitoxin.

So last week there was an investigation which disclosed that 1,101 doses of Gilliland antitoxin had expired last Sept. 1 and Dec. 1; that four samples had been retested and found potent enough to satisfy Roy G. Miller, executive of the Pennsylvania State Health Department; that upon his say-so President E. K. Tingely of Gilliland Laboratories, a veterinarian, repackaged the whole batch of old antitoxin, redated it, redistributed it to charity dispensaries all over Pennsylvania.

President Tingely and State Employe Miller, who 28 years ago worked for Dr. Tingely's Gilliland Laboratories, were arrested.

Well did Governor Earle know: "The revelations may cause some persons to fear there is danger in the use of antitoxin supplied through the Department of Health. Such fear might prevent the use of antitoxin with resultant danger of epidemic. I want to assure all Pennsylvanians that this danger has been averted by quick and drastic action."

That action was the recall, by hundreds of telegrams, of every known drop of stale antitoxin and authority to buy unsuspectable antitoxin at State expense.

For, said Governor Earle, speaking for Governmental officials everywhere: "Safeguarding of the public health is the most important of all Governmental functions."

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