SKIN TURNS BLUE

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XXVI, Issue 79, 14 March 1936, Page 6

SKIN TURNS BLUE

Rare Disease in America DOCTORS ALARMED ' Ten little American girls and five little boys have within the last year turned, blue. They have developed •rgyria, a rare discoloration of the ■kin resulting, in these 15 cases, troiu the use of solutions containing silver bought to cure colds. Medical circles in the United States are alarmed at a sudden increase in this hitherto rare complaint. Seventy cases have been recently reported. During the last five years the grand total of argyria sufferers has Deen more than doubled. According to medical authorities, the discoloration of the skin is permanent. At present no treatment for tho condition i« known. The human body ean retain only so much silver. If more than the equivalent of seven grams of silver arsphen•mine are taken, argyria develops. Slaty-blue blotches first appear on tho face, hands, and the half-moons of the finger-nails as the result of the •ilver in the system being chemically acted upon by light. In chronic cases the whole body is affected and goes a silver-black colour. Beyond the unpleasant discoloration of the skin the affected persons are apparently quite healthy and normal in everyway. In England cases of argyria are extremely rare. Beyond a few persons who have contracted it from some occupational cause, such as the handling of silver preparations over many years, it is almost unheard of. An authority consulted in London said that in 30 years he had only come •cross two or three cases. In all but one case only the backs of the hands were affected. The other case, he said, was outstanding. An elderly woman had for JO years, on the advice of a quack, been taking pills of silver nitrate to •are her indigestion. She became so afflicted with argyria that her face was the colour of a photographic negative. The silver in her •ystem had affected her hair, turning ft almbet into silver wire.