An important new discovery on the source of the spread of diphtheria has been credited to the research work done last year by Dr. Victor Freeman at the University of Washington Medical School. The findings may prove applicable to other bacterial diseases and may provide an answer to the age-old medical riddle of disease “carriers,” it was pointed out here today by Dr. Leland E. Powers, head of the university’s Department of Public Health and Peaventive Medicine.
While serving as assistant professor of public health and preventive medicine at Washington University, Dr. Freeman discovered that non-poisonous diphtheria bacteria sometimes are converted into poisonous form by a virus which feeds on the bacteria. Confirmation of Dr. Freeman’s findings is announced in the latest issue of the Proceedings of the Society for Experimental Biology and Medicine. Dr. Freeman is now doing graduate work at the University of Pittsburgh.
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