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The ringworm affair refers to circumstances involving an alleged number of 20,000 to 200,000 Israeli individuals who were treated between 1948 and 1960 for tinea capitis (ringworm) with ionizing radiation to the head and neck area. The population suffering from the disease in Israel at the time was composed primarily of newly arrived immigrants, mostly from North Africa, as well as some from Middle East and elsewhere. Though radiation was the standard treatment at the time, studies have shown the treatment caused cancer and other health problems. The treatment of ringworm patients is viewed by activists in Israel as the most salient example of injustices encountered in the 1950s as a result of shortcomings or irresponsibility on the part of authorities in the absorption in Israeli society of new immigrants. == Ringworm in Israel and Jewish communities == The scalp ringworm, also known as tinea capitis, mycosis, thrichophytia, and favus, was one of the most common fungal diseases in children in the Jewish communities in Israel and abroad since the 19th century. This X-ray treatment for ringworm has been used around the world as early as 1897.〔Rosenthal r. :"perspectives in ringworm of the scalp", Arch. Dermatol, vol 9, p 431-448 (1947)〕 An estimated 200,000 children worldwide received X-ray treatment for tinea capitis in accordance with the standard Adamson-Kienbock procedure between 1910 and 1959, until griseofulvin, the first effective antifungal agent for ringworm, was introduced. At the beginning of the 20th century, Hadassah Medical Center in Jerusalem treated ringworm disease among the religious Jewish community in Jerusalem using irradiation and the disease almost disappeared.〔Dostrovsky, Ringworm in Jerusalem’s Schools, Education ( Ha'Chinuch, Hebrew) , 9(1926) (p. 98.).〕 With mass immigration in the 1940s and 1950s, many new cases of ringworm surfaced, primarily among immigrant children from Asia and North Africa, due to crowded living conditions with deficient hygiene facilities. At this time, ringworm was still treated with irradiation, under the supervision of Hadassah Medical Center (Prof. Dostrovsky and Prof. Drukman). The treatment regime increased the risk of cancerous and noncancerous growths of the head and neck area years later among a portion of the patients. A number of research groups in Israel and the world have followed patients who were irradiated as children, in order to examine this group's susceptibility to cancerous growths. In Israel, this study was led by Professor Baruch Modan, who published an article in the medical journal ''The Lancet'' in 1974, in which Modan determined a strong causal linkage between irradiation of ringworm patients and the appearance of growths on the head and neck. In light of Modan's findings, in 1994 the Knesset passed a law requiring the Israeli government to provide compensation for damage to health resulting from exposure to such ringworm treatment. Compensation was available to patients (or their next of kin) treated with irradiation for ringworm between January 1, 1946 and December 31, 1960 and diagnosed with certain diseases as stipulated in the legislation. The law, however, placed the burden of proof on the claimant to submit factual evidence substantiating that they had received treatment – a proviso that generated public criticism. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Ringworm affair (Israel)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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