718 CORRESPONDENCE

ALOFECIA TOTALIS AFTER DIETHYLCARBAMAZINE TREATMENT OF LOIASI$

SIR,- - In December 1964 a well nourished Nigerian man, aged about 35 years, con- suked me. He had been treated with diethylcarbamazine (Banocide) at this dispensary for loiasis in May 1964 and had taken a total of 90 tablets, of 50 rag. each, 2 tablets three times daily. At the end of the course, according to the patient, his eyebrows and eyelashes began to drop out, then the scalp hair, axillary, pubic and body hair. Within l monLh he had complete hair loss. When I saw him in December 1964, he was in good health but had alopecia totalis. He denied taking any other drugs.

This is the only such case I have seen in over 10 years of practice in Benue Province, Northern Nigeria, during which I have treated thousands of filariasis patients with Banocide. Correspondence with Dr. J. M. Frisch of Burroughs Wellcome and Co. (manufacturers of Banocide) and Dr. B. O. L. Dukes of the Helminthiasis Research Unit, Kumba, Cameroun, disclosed that this case was also a novelty to them.

Would any physician who has seen this condition please correspond with me ? I am, etc.,

HERMAN H. GRAY. Kunav Dispensary, Gboko, N. Nigeria. 20 October, 1965.

ALBERT SCHWEITZER, 0. M.