~]
very prevalent in the babies and young children. However, by 8 to 10 years of age the
children appeared to acquire resistance, since the disease was much less prevalent
beyond those ages. Numerous pox scars were found on those individuals who had
chicken pox during the past year. An itching, papular lesion over the arms, legs, and
back was occasionally seen and, except for distribution, resembled scabies; this disease may have been due to the copra mite. In some individuals, small oval areas of
depigmentation of the skin were noted, possibly residual from fungus infection. One
case of leprosy in the Rongelap group, #77, who had lost the fingers of both hands and
the toes of the right foot (except the big toe}, showed hyperkeratosis and fissuring of
the stumps of the hands. Indolent ulcers were present on the soles of both feet. Because of his deforming disease, this young Marshallese man secluded himself and led
a lonely existence; he presented a real problem in psychological adjustment.
Residual Radiation Lesions of the Skin
Residual lesions were present in 14 of the Rongelap people, and only one residual
lesion was observed among the 18 Ailingnae people, The latter were exposed to considerably less fallout and had developed much milder lesions,
Table 3 summarizes the residual skin lesions. The majority of all lesions showed
improvement; almost all the early superficial lesions were completely healed, without
any apparent residual changes, Figure 1 shows an early superficial lesion of the neck,
and Figure 2 shows the completely healed appearance of the lesion two years postexposure, Lesions which showed dusky, grey hyperpigmentation during the first year
after exposure (mostly on the back of the neck) showed less hyperpigmentation and in
most cases the pigmentation developed a more normal "mahogany' color. Allresidual
Figure | (Left),
Superficial beta lesion of the back of the neck about six weeks after
exposure, Note areas at sides of neck which have desquamated contrasted to the center
region which shows hyperpigmented thickening of the skin which gradually desquamated
also.
Figure 2 (Right).
Case #24, F, age 15.
Same case as Figure 1 two years after exposure,
healing of lesion.
showing complete