Yokohama Asthma

When G.I.s and their dependents began to show up at the U.S. Army Hospital in Yokohama with asthma, the medics expected it to be the same old complaint. But the case histories were consistently different. Patient after patient reported that during his first fall or winter in Yokohama he had a persistent cold. Exertion made him gasp for breath, but he did not worry about this until he awoke, usually between 1 and 3 a.m., terrified because he thought he was suffocating. The next year, these cases got worse, and many became uncontrollable, the patients bordering on collapse. Also, the doctors found that the familiar treatment with Adrenalin did little good at first, and soon became useless. They had found a new disease.

The G.I.s called it "Yokohama asthma and were almost right. It is not confine to Yokohama, but to port cities like it-ringed around by hills, with varied industries fouling the air. Careful tests rule out pollens as a major cause of the asthma convicted smog as the villain. A team of Army doctors reports: "By smelling the air late in the afternoon, one could predict with considerable accuracy the number of patients who would seek medical attention that evening."

Americans, it turned out, were not the only victims. The Japanese suffered from it, as had other Westerners, but they had failed to distinguish it from other types of asthma. So far, the researchers report the only treatment for Yokohama asthma is to get out of places like Yokohama.

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