Excerpt ~ Chapter 8, The Peanut Allergy Epidemic
Throughout his life, Argentine-born revolutionary Che Guevara (1928-1967) suffered from acute attacks of asthma. His chest was "sunken and deformed” from violent and regular exercise-induced spasms that he struggled to control with epinephrine injections and inhalers.[1] A root cause of the debilitating condition, offered by a 1960's Time article, was Che's early life exposures to intense cold. Cold water immersions, a form of therapy imposed on him by his father, were intended to toughen up the premature and sickly boy:
Che was plunged into bathtubs of cold water and doused under icy showers. He developed a persistent cough and later serious allergic asthma.[2]
Che's condition inspired a natural interest in medicine in the proto-revolutionary, which he studied with the intention of becoming an allergist. While earning an MD in 1953, Che was still unable to do more than manage his allergic symptoms [3] that, as a revolutionary in 1957, seemed to deepen. Large cysts formed in response to mosquito venom and the asthma attacks were relentless:
The asthma was so strong it didn’t let me advance. … I made it, but with such an asthma attack that every single step was difficult… I had to make a decision because it was impossible for me to go on without at least buying medicines.[4]
Some relief came in the 1950s with the development of portable inhalers. These small canisters contained measured doses of anti-inflammatory steroids and bronchodilators.[5] By 1961, Che’s puffer likely contained a form of cortisone, a chemical with clear side effects including a swollen, round face and weight gain. These effects were noted by his biographers.[6]
Inhalers containing the drug isoproterenol offered fast and convenient relief from asthma. The devices were quickly adopted and prescribed liberally in primary westernized markets. However, coincidental to their widespread use was a shocking string of asthma deaths in England and Wales starting in 1960 and peaking around 1968 (a year after Che’s summary execution in Bolivia). The same or worse increase in asthma deaths in this period was observed in Ireland, Australia, New Zealand and Norway.
It took four more years for the deadly mystery to be solved: the approved concentration of the inhaled asthma drug was five times higher in the devices used in the affected countries – this compared with the US or Canada and presumably also South America. The iatrogenic nature of the epidemic was discovered by Dr. Paul Stolley of Johns Hopkins University. He published his conclusions in 1972:
…at least 3,500 asthmatics – most of them below the age of thirty-five – died suddenly during the 1960s in Britain alone. In children between the ages of ten and fourteen, asthma had become the fourth leading cause of death. It was the worst therapeutic drug disaster on record. There’s nothing else – not even thalidomide --- that ranks with it.[7]
[1] D. Abrams, Ernesto “Che” Guevara (NYC, Chelsea House, 2010)
[2] Anon, “Cuba, Castro’s Brain,” Time (Aug. 8, 1960).
[3] J. Casta, Companero: the life and death of Che Guevara (Vintage, 1998).
[4] Ibid p. 102.
[5] M. Jackson, Asthma, p. 162
[6] Casta, op cit, pg. 194.
[7] P. Stolley, “Asthma Mortality: Why the United States was spared an epidemic of deaths due to asthma,” American Review of Respiratory Disease, Vol. 105 (1972): 833. From M. Silverman, P. Lee, Pills, Profits and Politics (U. of California Press, 1974).
Throughout his life, Argentine-born revolutionary Che Guevara (1928-1967) suffered from acute attacks of asthma. His chest was "sunken and deformed” from violent and regular exercise-induced spasms that he struggled to control with epinephrine injections and inhalers.[1] A root cause of the debilitating condition, offered by a 1960's Time article, was Che's early life exposures to intense cold. Cold water immersions, a form of therapy imposed on him by his father, were intended to toughen up the premature and sickly boy:
Che was plunged into bathtubs of cold water and doused under icy showers. He developed a persistent cough and later serious allergic asthma.[2]
Che's condition inspired a natural interest in medicine in the proto-revolutionary, which he studied with the intention of becoming an allergist. While earning an MD in 1953, Che was still unable to do more than manage his allergic symptoms [3] that, as a revolutionary in 1957, seemed to deepen. Large cysts formed in response to mosquito venom and the asthma attacks were relentless:
The asthma was so strong it didn’t let me advance. … I made it, but with such an asthma attack that every single step was difficult… I had to make a decision because it was impossible for me to go on without at least buying medicines.[4]
Some relief came in the 1950s with the development of portable inhalers. These small canisters contained measured doses of anti-inflammatory steroids and bronchodilators.[5] By 1961, Che’s puffer likely contained a form of cortisone, a chemical with clear side effects including a swollen, round face and weight gain. These effects were noted by his biographers.[6]
Inhalers containing the drug isoproterenol offered fast and convenient relief from asthma. The devices were quickly adopted and prescribed liberally in primary westernized markets. However, coincidental to their widespread use was a shocking string of asthma deaths in England and Wales starting in 1960 and peaking around 1968 (a year after Che’s summary execution in Bolivia). The same or worse increase in asthma deaths in this period was observed in Ireland, Australia, New Zealand and Norway.
It took four more years for the deadly mystery to be solved: the approved concentration of the inhaled asthma drug was five times higher in the devices used in the affected countries – this compared with the US or Canada and presumably also South America. The iatrogenic nature of the epidemic was discovered by Dr. Paul Stolley of Johns Hopkins University. He published his conclusions in 1972:
…at least 3,500 asthmatics – most of them below the age of thirty-five – died suddenly during the 1960s in Britain alone. In children between the ages of ten and fourteen, asthma had become the fourth leading cause of death. It was the worst therapeutic drug disaster on record. There’s nothing else – not even thalidomide --- that ranks with it.[7]
[1] D. Abrams, Ernesto “Che” Guevara (NYC, Chelsea House, 2010)
[2] Anon, “Cuba, Castro’s Brain,” Time (Aug. 8, 1960).
[3] J. Casta, Companero: the life and death of Che Guevara (Vintage, 1998).
[4] Ibid p. 102.
[5] M. Jackson, Asthma, p. 162
[6] Casta, op cit, pg. 194.
[7] P. Stolley, “Asthma Mortality: Why the United States was spared an epidemic of deaths due to asthma,” American Review of Respiratory Disease, Vol. 105 (1972): 833. From M. Silverman, P. Lee, Pills, Profits and Politics (U. of California Press, 1974).
RSS Feed
