The Indian soldiers' role in Korea has won world-wide acclamation. No less significant is the part played by that diligent section of the Indian Custodian Force - the Army doctors - who were responsible for looking after the health of our troops. Their unsparing sense of duty and professional rectitude will perhaps go unnoticed because they are part of the normal qualities belonging to this highly skilled service. But the manner in which they have used their new opportunities to supplement their knowledge about new diseases, under exceptionally service climatic conditions will, for ever, remain a source of know-how for our Army's medical research section. Within the short time they have been in Korea, they have studied three new diseases which are not known in India. These are : Haemorrhagic fever; gonimiasis - a disease resembling pulmonary tuberculosis and the effects of Korean round "worm", which gives rise to a number of complications.

Also recently they wintnessed a rare and unique freak of nature. A prisoner of war has three pupils in each eye and yet his eye-sight is perfectly normal. He does not wear any glasses, there is nothing abnormal about him otherwise each of these pupils responds to light showing that they are perfectly normal.

Haemorrhagic fever is peculiar to Korea and has a high rate of mortality in this peninsula. It usually starts with a cold and a headache but ultimately affects the kidneys, and the patient generally dies of Uraemia. It is believed to be caused by an infection carried by the bite of a mite which lives and feeds on rats. Fortunately Indian soldiers have remained free from its ravages. This may be mostly due to the rigid sense of discipline to which our Jawans have been subjected and the preventive measures that have been taken by our unit doctors.

Among the 6,000 Indian troops living in sub-zero temperature, on a terrain where drainage is poor and conditions are not altogether healthy, the rate of illness has never gone beyond 7.5 per cent. It has amazed foreigners that within the five months that the Indian Jawans have been in Korea there has been not a single case of frost bite, malaria, typhoid or intestinal troubles. The rate of illness, due to cough, cold and minor injuries stood uniformly at 12 to 14 per thousand.

Our army doctors have been also undertaking study tours in Japan and parts of Korea. Army psychiatrists have had an admirable field to study the mental complexes and aberrations of the prisoners of war, many of whom have developed a strange psychology due to long periods of imprisonment, political indoctrination, fear of war and uncertainty of future, and above all, a suspicion of mankind.