Ringworm affair

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Please improve this article if you can. (October 2007)

The ringworm affair refers to circumstances involving an estimated 20,000 Israeli individuals, particularly children, who were treated between 1948 and 1960 for tinea capitis (ringworm) with ionizing radiation to the head area. This population was composed mostly of newly arrived immigrants from North Africa and the Middle East.[1] An estimated 200,000 children worldwide received X-ray treatment for tinea capitis in accordance with the standard Adamson-Kienbock procedure between 1910 and 1959, until griseofulvin, the first effective antifungal agent for ringworm, was introduced.[2]

Contents

[edit] Subject of documentaries

The affair has been the subject of a film documentary screened in Israel.

The Ringworm Children directed by David Belhassen and Asher Hemias. The documentary won the award for "Best Documentary" at the Haifa International Film Festival and was featured as a documentary at the Israel Film Festival in Los Angeles in 2007.[3] [4] It is claimed in the documentary that the X-ray radiation used on the children was thousands of times beyond the maximum recommended dose,[verification needed] and it is suggested that the program was funded by the United States in order to test the effects of large radiation doses on humans.[verification needed] Many of the 'ringworm children' later developed cancer, and in 1995 the Knesset passed a law mandating the Israeli government to provide them with compensation.

[edit] Part of academic studies

Nadav Davidovitch, MD, MPH, PhD, (a lecturer in the Division of Public Health Ben Gurion University, Israel, and a Fulbright Scholar in the Center for the History and Ethics of Public Health at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health) and Dr. Avital Margalit of the Bar-Ilan University Faculty of Law, presented a paper on the usage of radiation to stop ringworm outbreaks. [5]

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

[edit] References

  1. ^ Sadetzki S, Chetrit A, Freedman L, Stovall M, Modan B, et al. (2005). "Long-Term Follow-up for Brain Tumor Development after Childhood Exposure to Ionizing Radiation for Tinea Capitis". Radiation Research: Vol. 163, No. 4 pp. 424–432. PMID 15799699
  2. ^ Shore RE, Moseson M, Xue X, Tse Y, Harley N, et al. (2002). "Skin Cancer after X-Ray Treatment for Scalp Ringworm". Radiation Research: Vol. 157, No. 4 pp. 410–418. PMID 11893243
  3. ^ THE RINGWORM CHILDREN (20th Anniversary Israel Film Festival). israelfilmfestival.com.
  4. ^ The Ringworm Children (FANDANGO). fandango.com.
  5. ^ Nadav Davidovitch and Avital Margalit. Injurious Medicine, Injurious Remedy: Public Health, Law, and Ringworm Mass Irradiation in Israel (Paper presented at the annual meeting of the The Law and Society Association, Renaissance Hotel, Chicago, Illinois, May 27, 2004). allacademic.com.

[edit] Articles

  • Nadav Davidovich and Shifra Shvarts: Health and Hegemony: Preventive Medicine, Immigrants and the Israeli Melting Pot, Israel Studies, Indiana University Press Journals, Summer 2004, Vol. 9, No. 2: Pages 150-179.