| Guy Henry Faget | |
| Birth Date: | 1891 |
| Birth Place: | American |
| Death Date: | 1947 (aged 55–56) |
| Known For: | Discovery of the effectiveness of promin in the treatment of leprosy in 1943 |
| Occupation: | Physician, Director of a leper hospital at Carville, America |
| Nationality: | America |
Guy Henry Faget (1891–1947) was an American medical doctor who revolutionalized the treatment of leprosy, by demonstrating the efficacy of promin, as described in a paper published in 1943. Promin is a sulfone compound, synthesized by Feldman and his co-workers in 1940, which is a chemotherapeutic agent that was determined to be effective against tuberculosis in experimental animals. He was the grandson of Jean Charles Faget, and father of Maxime Faget.
For 25 years he was a distinguished officer of the US Public Health Service. In 1940 he became the director of the United States Marine Hospital (National Leprosarium) at Carville, Louisiana, United States of America. He was a memberof the International Leprosy Association (ILA) and a consultant to the Advisory Medical Board of LWM. He died in 1947, as a result of a fall and after being affected by heart disease.
On May 7 to 9, 1942, he was invited to the 44th Annual Meeting of the Medical Library Association, New Orleans, and read a paper.[1] In this paper he described the present situation of leprosy in the United States, and the National Leprosarium at Carville with photographs. He hinted important progress would be made in the near future.
This is the paper written immediately before the promin paper. Toxic effects of this drug were considerable, but among 20 cases, it was effective in 6, and another 2 were also effective but on their road to improvement. One case remained unchanged and 10 cases progressed. In its conclusions, they clearly wrote that sulfanilamide cannot be regarded as a curative agent for leprous lesions, either of the macular or lepromatous type.[2]
The side effects of promin were carefully evaluated, and it was concluded that promin could be safely administered, provided that the blood and urine of patients are examined frequently. Among 22 cases, effective in 15 cases (68%), unchanged in 6 cases (27%), worsened in 1 case(5%), and bacilli became negative in 5 cases (23%). In addition, control studies were conducted, which demonstrated significant differences between the promin group and the control group. Impressive photographs were included in the paper.
The original paper contains the following table.
| Mixed, far advanced | 6 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 1 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mixed, moderately advanced | 5 | 4 | 1 | o | 1 | |
| Lepromatous, far advanced | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| Lepromatous, moderately advanced | 9 | 6 | 3 | 0 | 3 | |
| Neural, moderately advanced | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| Total | 22 | 15 | 6 | 1 | 5 |
The following papers are based on a Japanese Book Nihon Hifuka Zensho 9,1, "Leprosy"[3]
This is a message of Faget to leprosy patients which was printed in the Christmas number of the 1941 Star, and therefore is considered to directly address patients for participation in the promin trial.[4]
His discovery paved the way to the complete recovery of leprosy, and many effective chemotherapeutic agents followed. He was honored postmortem at the 7th International Congress of Leprology in Tokyo in 1958 and at the centennial celebration of the Hansen's Disease Center at Carville in 1994.
