MEDICAL RESEARCH AND PRACTICE

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP80-00809A000600040321-1
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: S
• Document Page Count: 4
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: July 19, 2011
• Sequence Number: 321
• Publication Date: July 31, 1953
• Content Type: REPORT

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CLASSI FI CATI OI'YSECRF'i'
CENTRAL INTELLMENCE AGENCY
INFORMATION REPORT
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COUNTRY Hungary DATE DISTR. 31 JUL 53
SUBJECT Medical Research and Practice NO. OF PAGES A
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PLACE
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NO. OF ENCLS.
MISTED arloW)
T
ACQU
PATE OF INFORMATIO
... ......
SUPPLEMENT TO
REPORT NO.
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THIS IS UNEVALUATED INFORMATION
1. One of the historical accomplishments of Hungar9a' medical research would
certainly be I.P. Scm-elxcis's discovery of puerperalsepsis. Prop A
Szentgcgrgyy, now in isle uo, u.iscovered Vitamin C, for which. he received
the Noe Prize.
antibiot
e y ungar physicians - at least in certain situation
family were operated on in Hungary,
and both streptomycin and tained
or their trea ent
e eve s re o 0
p mycin c n are generally available without restrictions
or special permit.
3. Prior to Deceiber 19W4, dressing materials, tetanw serum, diiltb.Ma serum,
rabies vaccine, smallpox vaccine, and ccmmon drugs like aspirin and sulpha
preparations,-were available in adequate supply. We did, however, have
considerable trouble with plaster of Paris and there was a shortage of nlastic-
base X-ray films. The plaster of Paris was available, but was of such poor
quality that it would not dry properly and did not have adequate strength for
satisfactor
cast
P
y
s.
aper was used for I-ray films.
in Hungar I neither saw nor heard of any
were normally '. ."O" L.ucuva
purchased from German or Czechoslovakia, with a few coming from
the U$ and US. In Hungary's trade agreement with Germany, medical instrvmnts
were one of the manufactured products received by Hungary in exchange for food
staples or products. Supplies of medical instruments and similar apparatus and
drugs for clinical research were adequate.
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8.
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]0.
11.
12.
e
e
e
ore World wa II th
rree groups of hospital patients,
determined by economic group and general status. Most of the patients for clinical
research were those belonging to the first or poorest of these groups.
Patients for clinical research were derived from the hospitals, which were all
government-operated. There w
r
b
f
6 }b -tion to the level of medical research toda~
sure that adequate personnel are available. In 1945, there were between
ousand and 12 thousand physicians in Hungary, and from the four
universities were graduating enough MDs to increase this total. This plentiful
supply was partly due to the fact that Hun
ar
h
d
g
y
a
an unusuall l
yarge proportion
of its population belonging to the intelligentsia, as contrasted vith the so-called
working class. Since medicine - d
- - _
an a le supplyr
o rs.
esi
here
7. The medical research program of each Institute was supervised by the Director, usual-
ly a university professor
.
Most of th
ese Institutes w
e l
er
ocated in Budapest, in
conjunction with the major Hungarian university. Other Institutes were affiliated
with the smaller universities located at Pecs, Debrecen, and Szeged. Medical re-
search was actively carried on at all these places, sometimes more intensively in
the suwaller universities than at Budapest. All of these institutions and their
research were gove=nment-sponsored: In general, up until World War I. medical
research was relatively up-to-date in Hungary, as compared with other countries
including the US, but definitely declined during the period between World Wars I
and II due to lack of money. th Commil "
more money into medical rese the have been channeling
ng
they are interested in
in
improving the general health and specific medical service' of the H
Insofar as specie arch programs established in ungarian people.
Soviet benefit
are concerned oubt that much has been done along this line,
do not believe e oviets trust the H nt
ungariana sufficiently to ina a suc
a program. This was the case with the Germans in World War II, and they did not
establish a single medical or pharmaceutical factory or initiate any medical
search in Hungary. -
Medical textbooks have been in adequate supply, with a good many available
other la es - Gem
ish
d
, an
Italian. However
or methods or approach to a problem. -"`--vw --ccuum In -cneir
,
onth
h
staff meetings this
same staff men an t
6ne next research personnel were month's assignment was given. Laboratory and other
res of h personae status. proY ded by the Institute, provided the medical researcher
own sufficient sentot tus. Younger physicians beginning in research normally did
was o
2tnlent, in m icon at the universities could do sm-
animal experimentation. nt
Correspondence with foreign scientists 'uas not restricted prior to December 1944,
and physicians and research scientists were allowed to attend international con-
ferences and meetings.
- 1
Medical salaries were very poor. To give some idea, a country doctor seeing at 11
least 50 patients each working day, received in 1944 only 180 Pengo per month
(and he started practice at 160 pengo per month). One hundred and sixty pengo
would in 1944 buy in Hungary about six pairs of shnec, Meai^w?1
-re n lithe i.iaher-e situation the reverse of that in de or the t , heres
the practitioner usually had a higher income than the research r.r the U5, where
Hungarian medical professors devoted full time to teaching, but also undertook
to direct medical research and evaluate the results. Each professor engaged in
such research had a monthly assignment
s
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13 Medical students in Hungary were drawn from all levels nil ann1n+?
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?eTi expensive, ana sere were re atively few scholarships. ical
14. The curricula of Hungarian medical departments was abotat the same as these in the
e complete medical
course in Hungary required about six and one-half years.
15. Post-graduate medical training in Hungary was very poor, and no provisions were
made for post-graduate study in other countries, Although there was good train-
ing in Budapest for certification as.an MD, and research work was conducted at the
Institutes, there was no organized post-graduate medical aWriculum. The Institutes
provided the equivalent of post-gradumt;e medical. study only for members of their
own staff, who were usually affiliated with their Institute for life. There was
no Master's Degree in Medicine, but there was such a degree given in Pharmacology.
There were very few PhDs in medical fields. In.the countryside; the practitioner
only had available to him local meetings. and medical literature to advance his
knowledge. Transportation problems and low income prevented the type of commuta-
tion to places of medical activity and professional interest so common in the US.
16. Surgical specialty boards of examination and certification have existed in Hungary
since 1896.
171. Every mediexl Inntitute 1,.A-.
li _
. goo:. 1111tiiy, including foreign publications - German,
English, American, and Italian, for example.
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Obstetrics arum
yne6blogy,.Pediatrics. The Surgical Institute comprised three
separate buildings, each comprising hospital (c.150-250 beds), clinic, and educa-
tional facilities, and each under the direction of a professor who was like a
king in his own institute domain, subject only to the Department of Health and
Education of the State Government. One of these was recently established and
very small in late-1944. The Institute of Internal Medicine consisted of two
hospital, clinic, teaching. establishments. Anatomy was in a single building,
and the.Institute of Obstetrics and Gynecology occupied two.
19. Surgical instruments of good quality were manufactured by private enterprise in
Eungary. Hemostats, scissors, and similar general instruments were in ample sup-
ply from within Hungary /Yate 1944], but special instruments such as the opthal-
moscope, microscope, eystosco - were imported, la-
were beginning to be rod ca a
prior to 19 thuracscopes were never produced in Hungary before World
War I; however, in , in Germany the first Hu;garian-
manufacty-_d thorcCOicohe was being used a Hungarian hospital at Verne.
20. Pharmace_liticaj s we' e 7 t --
o
une
95
Hunga
l
-., is ..
1
producing pens-
7
L
l __ Y~Cyarniions were part1eusariy good, better
on the average than those produced in Germany. It was In .this medical-pharma-
ceutical field that Hungarian medical research was best. Good work was also done
? to vaccination against mbies.
21. In 1944, I recall speoldag. with a Soviet prisoner-of-war through an interpreter,
who told me that if he could capture me he would receive a 20 thousand ruble re-
ward
a
h
,
s p
ysicians were so critically needed by the Soviets.
22. Many Hungarian doctors'have been imprisoned under the Communist regime, their
licenses taken away, and'cthers sent to the USSR. Many doctors are not &IInuo,i
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before, there was
in before, th. and probably still today) a
Plus of ;PbYsiclaas
23. Surgical procedures in Hungary were-genexally c
for the restrictions imposed by inadequate ah coals ble
24_ rn~_w _._ ibiotics, to those he %* except
Y, the
---- =(Lzc&.L Specialist. in Was his YO ost doctor involved is the surgery which vas ~unfozrumte. tkuJ-.-
T
Y professional apeaialt 'a tinted red the anesthesia.
recognized as a medical emphasis of y undiff and ins
importance. ufticiently
PsYec oanalevel oflysis xa ;sychiatry was good, following Freudie
l
so Practiced. Sodium per-t n a Adlerian principles.
"Eviesn"we. a
and d
tw.
eaths H om" was a moieoldangerous ran- i G n alent
than
through its 'We.
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