Atabrine was developed by a german dye industry and has been in use for decades. Before WWII thousands of malaria cases have been treated with atabrine. Tests were conducted to prove whether quinine or atabrine was more effective. Atabrine unlike quinine has no serious toxic effects. Both drugs however are not guaranteed to cure malaria within one course of treatment and doesn’t prevent infection if used as prophylactic. Both drugs however are useful in suppressing clinical symptoms in stressful war periods. Qunine is obtained from cinchona bark which are meager. Hence it was critical to have quinine to cure malaria cases otherwise conducting military operations in tropic countries would have been impossible to carry out. During WWII, Supplies have expanded. . Thus, the loss of most of the world's supply of quinine to the Japanese has not proved to be a serious handicap to the health of the allied soldiers[3]
But why wasn’t quinine used in WWII? That’s because the Japanese captured more than 90% of the world’s supply of quinine when they occupied the Dutch East Indies. Hence allied navy and army employed atabrine for both suppressive and curative treatments. Atabrine causes yellowing of the skin as it’s a yellow dye. In a small percentage of cases nausea and vomiting were observed. These symptoms are seldom serious and once the drug is stopped, the clinical side effects disappear. The majority of individuals experienced no side effects and took one tablet after each meal.[3]
[2]
[1]http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4129/5020655205_a8a36c7085.jpg
[2]http://history.amedd.army.mil/booksdocs/wwii/MedConslt1/figures/fig184.jpg
[3]Stenly, Lone. "WWII Tactical and Technical Trends Series, U.S. Military Intelligence Service (Lone Sentry)."Lone Sentry: World War II Photographs, Documents, and Research. U.S. War Department Publication Tactical and Technical Trends.ju, 3 June 1943. Web. 18 June 2011
