1. MEDICAL INSTITUTES IN PRAGUE 2. CZECH--EAST GERMAN COLLABORATION IN PREVENTIVE MEDICINE

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP80-00810A004300970009-9
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: S
• Document Page Count: 5
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: September 28, 2009
• Sequence Number: 9
• Publication Date: July 21, 1954
• Content Type: REPORT

Approved For Release 2009/09/28: CIA-RDP80-0081 OA004300970009-9
CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY
6311'
INFORMATION REPORT
This Document contains Information affecting the Na-
tional Defense of the United States, within the mean-
ing of Title 18, Sections 793 and 794, of the U.S. Code, as
amended. Its transmission or revelation of its contents
to or receipt by an unauthorized person is prohibited
by law. The reproduction of this form is prohibited.
SECRET/CONTROL U.S. OFFICIALS ONLY
COUNTRY Czechoslovakia/East Germany
SUBJECT 1. Medical Institutes in Prague
2. Czech--East German Collaboration
in Preventive Medicine
REPORT
DATE DISTR.
NO. OF PAGES
REQUIREMENT NO. RD
REFERENCES
THE SOURCE EVALUATIONS IN THIS REPORT ARE DEFINITIVE.
THE APPRAISAL OF CONTENT IS TENTATIVE.
(FOR KEY SEE REVERSE)
1. Dr. K. Sorgenfrei, head of the East German Central Serum Testing Institute in
Berlin-Pankow, went to Prague on 20 January 1954 to visit the Czechoslovak
bodies concerned with the prevention and combating of epidemics.
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2. Dr. Sorgenfrrj's visit was very strictly controlled. He was required to stay
at the Esplanade Hotel and was told by an official of the East German Embassy
that he was to take his meals only in that hotel and was not to visit other
hotels or restaurants. He was under surveillance for the whole of his visit.
On the one free afternoon, he took coffee in a cafe; next morning he was
summoned to the Embassy, reprimanded and told not to repeat the offense. He
was not allowed any postal communication with Germany. As he was not told this
before he went, his wife became anxious and was eventually informed by the
Foreign Ministry of the ban on writing.
3. He was allowed 135 Czech crowns per day, of which his accommodation and food
cost about 100. The balance, he found, would purchase very little at the high
prices prevailing in Prague.
Medical Institutes in Prague
4. The institutes dealing with'preventivemedicine are all on the grounds of the
foriher State, Heb,lth Establishfneht' founded: in-1925and axe situated! on a slope
facing south int they .no hraca . district of + Prague.. They comprise
a? The Institute for the Utr trot of IIedicarrientsy Se'aparid Vacci ,oo.
b. Biogena, a nationalized organization for the production of sera and vaccines,
c. The Institute of Epidemiology and Microbiology.
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d Tl a . ndt its-dte ;Q " Hi iene.
e. The Deanfs Office of the Faculty of Hygiene and,Medic.ine.1
f. Establishments for the production of rabies and smallpox vaccines.
g. The Research Institute of Tuberculosis
The physical proximity of these institutes is intended to facilitate quick and
informal cooperation in all matters relating to apidemics
Furthermore, im-
mediately adjoining the group of institutes is a large hospital with which they
are continually in touch.
5. The Institute for Epidemiology and Microbiology is the most important of the
group and its chief, Prof. Racka, is in charge of the entire group. A depart-
ment of this Institute receives notifications of 'nfectiou:g- dls ase through-
out C echos1ova4ia for eollatio a pd ? ~k he.,aame depar men prepares
the :.material "-.for..explanatory n?1;iqpq...1.$circulation and for questionnaires
related ' to its work. The
dsa 1;hertrgrk.. of various local -Taigienic and epidemiological stations throw Yhtt count
g ry. The staff of these
stations receives specialized instruction in the departments of the Institute,.
and can call for assistance, in the form of an aircraft or a van equipped as
a laboratory, to deal with an outbreak. When the laboratory of a local station
isolates a new strain of a disease agent, this is sent to.t$e relegant section
of the Institute and card-indexed and put into the strain collection in the
microbiological section of the Institute.
6. The biggest department of this Institute is the salmonella department, which,
apart from its tasks of investigation, teaching,an,:i research, produces sera
ar?d carries out diagnoses. In view of the increase in demand for such sera, a
new establishment of the nationalized production organization2is shortly to be
set up to take over this work. Other departments of this Institute are the
whooping-cough department, the streptococcus department, the phages department,
the virus department, and the parasitology department.
7. The Institute for the Control of Medicaments, Sera,and Vaccines tests all medical
drugs, for example:
a. In the bacteriology department: the sterility and harmlessness of products and
the biochemical characteristics of culture strains.
b. In the serology department: the efficacy of vaccines, the serological
characteristics of culture strains, the harmlessness and efficacy of anti-
toxic vaccines.
c. In the chemical department: the albumen content, antisepsis, ammonium sulphate,
pH value, etc.
d. In the pharmacology department: all other medicines.
Specimens for testing are taken from medical stores.
8. Bacterial vaccines, antitoxic sera and similar products are usually tested at the
Institute itself. In the case of those produced far from Prague, the testing is
carried out by the chief or deputy chief of the appropriate local station as
designated by the Ministry of Health. Preparations with a short storage life,
like ,Ambozeptor, are tested in special establishments, The M-, N-,,and Rh- blood-
group factor sera of this type are tested in the Institute of Haematology and
Blood Transfusion, and the second test by the State Testing Institute is omitted.
When ddscrepancies occur, further tests are carried out in the presence of the
producer.
9.
The State Testing Institute in Prague receives twice a year from the State Serum
Institute in Copenhagen standard antitoxins against diphtheria tetanus, gas
gangrene (clostridium perfringens, septicum, histolyticum (sic5, oedematicum),
and staphylococcus.
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10. Biogena is an important manufacturer of preparations compulsorily subject to
testing. Production is controlled by a Main Administration which receives its
orders and general directions from the Ministry of Health. It produces sera
and vaccines of the most varied kinds, bacteriophages, &1lergens, tuberculin,
and therapeutic preparations based on snake poisons. Control of the quality
of production is carried out by three sepwa?te departments:
a.
The biological department tests the quality of the sera, their sterility
and microscopy.
b,
The chemical
colorimetry,
examination,
department carries out physical and chemical tests such as
spectrography9 polarography, pH-measurement, analytical
weighing, titration, the production of buffer solutions and
formalin dilutions. Also, all reagents received are tested, in particular
for purity, before being passed to the production departments.
c. The cultures department receives the bacterial strains from the Institute
for Epidemiology and Microbiology, tests them for biological action
(Verhalten), agglutinating properties9and virulence by experiments on
animals, and keeps them in a strain collection. Samples (Abimpfungen) are
passed to the production departments. The strain collections held in each
part of the works are checked each quarter by the cultures department, and
any found to be below standard are replaced with new strains.
11. An Immunology Research Institute has developed out of a small research depart-
ment of Biogena. It is under the control of the Main Administration of Biogena
and receives enquiries and problems from the production departments and in-
structions from the Ministry of Health.
12. The Insitute of Hygiene is housed in the same block of buildings as the State
Testing Institute. The public health department contains sub-departments for
dealing with the applications of-hygiene to air, water., sewage, soil, land-
settlement, the person, clothing, and schools. The department of physiology and
food hygiene contains sections dealing with hygiene as applied to food, articles
in everyday use., packing materials, synthetic materialsaand cosmetic preparations.
Questions relating to communal feeding arrangements are also dealt with and the
guiding principles for canteens worked out. A special department scientifically
evaluates all opinions and enquiries on hygiene., assembles them in archives and,
in consultation with the local stations, establishes a standard procedure for the
analytical test methods. The department of labor hygiene is in a separate
establishment. 25X1
13.
14. Attached to the group of institutes is a large and well equipped snake farm,
containing many rare specimens. To all appearances, intensive research is being
carried out in the spheres of snake toxin and preventives.
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15.I (these institutes were staffed by large
numbers of doctors, all highly specialized in narrow fields., and with a low
standard of general professional training.
16.
.tactically all the apparatus is made of copper, whereas in East Germany
one has to make do with glass,
arra ements quite im)ossib e
the technical equipment of the institutes.
Czech-East German Medical Convention
18. After Dr. Sorgenfreias visit, an agreement was signed between Czechoslovakia
ahd East Germany on cooperation in the field of hygiene and bacteriology. The
signatories of the agreement were:
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a. for Czechoslovakia: for the Ministry of Health, V. Sonrek and
Z. Kasik; for the Chief Administration of Medicament Production,
Dr. R. Roubicek; for the Technoexport corporation of Prague, Kemrova (fnu);
and for the Bohumil Serum Station and Farm, an unidentified representative.
b. for East Germany: for the Central Serum. Testing Institute, Dr. Sorgenfrei;
for the Ministry of Health (after checking by Dr. Saatz ), the Minister or
his Deputy; for the Office of Scientific and Technical Cooperation of the
State Planning Commission, Gabriel; and for the East German Government,
its ambassador in Prague.
19. The agreement provides that Czechoslovakia will make the following available to
East Germany:
a. Standards for nutrients, produced by Dr. Jegorows (fnu) (German spelling) of
the Institute for the Control of Medicaments, which are used for sterility
testing of biological preparations.
b. Prescriptions for nutrients for the production of tetanus and diphtheria
toxins.
c. Prescriptions for nutrients for the cultivation of gonococcus.
d. Standards for antidiphtheriaandd'antitetanus sera.
e. Standards for the control testing of antitoxin vaccines for diphtheria and
tetanus, of gamma globulin, of typhoid bacteria, of placental extract of
mixed vaccines, including the mixed vaccine against tetanus and salmonella.
f. All the newest standards (Normen).
g. Standard strains of the following:
Ty Vi (sic)
H - parapertussis (sic)
H - whooping-cough (sic)
gonococcus
dysentery - Flexner
diphtheria
tetanus.
h. A strain of toxoplesma (sic).
i. Diagnostic whooping-cough serum and a standard whooping-cough strain for the
evaluation of whooping-cough vaccines.
j. A parapertussis strain and serum.
k. A catalogue of the cultures collection.
1. A monograph on lyophil-drying of sera and bacterial cultures. East Germany
will be allowed to retain the documents for two months, after which they
must be returned to Czechoslovakia.
Comrients? 1 Presumably of Charles University of Prague.
2. presumably refers to Biogena, National Enterprise;
bee above, paragraph 4b. 25X1
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