Abstract

DO.15.01

Atoxyl and Robert Koch: despiser of humanity?

Guido Kluxen
Krankenhaus Wermelskirchen GmbH, Augenbelegabteilung, Gemeinschaftspraxis

Since Livingstone, and particularly via Robert Koch but also others, arsenic had gained the reputation of being an active agent against trypanosomes. Indeed, the first active trypanocides were pentavalent arsenicates. Atoxyl was to become the first in line of these. Koch’s expedition to East Africa, concerned with sleeping sickness, extended from may 1906 until November 1907. He kept detailed diaries, and there were many photographs taken, so that it was one of the best documented Koch’s expeditions. The toxicity of Atoxyl had a very deleterious effect on the optic nerve, provoking atrophy and more than 3,5 % cases of blindness. Koch’s work on sleeping sickness formed the basis of Paul Ehrlich’s research particularly in the development of salvarsan for the treatment of syphilis which was the beginning of modern chemotherapy. There are some modern historians meaning that Koch in East Africa had established a concentration camp in which inmates were used in medical experiments testing Atoxyl on them. However, let truth be the prejudice.

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