Press Articles
In 1981 and 1982, Pavel Kozak’s work was reported by the Canadian press and by the United Press International news agency. Below is a brief account of the articles we were able to verify, each with its source.
The public response to the method came mainly from outside Romania, in 1981 and 1982. The Canadian press followed the situation of patients from Ontario who were being treated at Pavel Kozak’s clinic in West Germany, and in March 1982 it reported the provincial government’s decision to fund research into chronic skin diseases. The articles are summarised below, each with its source and date, without reproducing the full texts.
The Examiner, 16 May 1982
The article by Paul Schliesmann, headlined “Kozak Gave Me a New Lease on Life”, reports on Judy Preston, a young woman from Angus, Ontario, who had epidermolysis bullosa and who travelled to West Germany in January 1982 for treatment. Four months after starting the treatment, the paper records that she had gained weight and was continuing at home the regimen she had been given: a strict diet, with restrictions on salt, sugar, tap water and frozen foods, plus creams applied four times a day. “There is not all that much to it”, she says of the diet, adding that following it is nonetheless essential. The article also notes that a local Lions club had raised more than 41,000 dollars towards the cost of the treatment, and that the family was disappointed by the news that Pavel Kozak would not be settling permanently in Canada.
The Sunday Sun, 21 March 1982
The paper reports the announcement made by Larry Grossman, Ontario’s Minister of Health, on funding a research and treatment programme for skin diseases at the University of Toronto. The programme was to be led by Professor C. A. Ramsay, head of dermatology at Toronto General Hospital, and Pavel Kozak was to be invited to Toronto for his expertise. Of him, the minister said: “His work has stimulated interest and concern throughout the health care community”. The article further indicates that treatment of this kind would be covered by the provincial health insurance plan if carried out in Ontario by physicians.
The United Press International dispatches
Three UPI dispatches, dated 26 November 1981, 30 November 1981 and 19 March 1982, describe Pavel Kozak as a Romanian-born biochemist and report the interest shown by the Canadian authorities in his method. The dispatch of 19 March 1982 sets out the programme announced by Larry Grossman: the research was to be carried out at the University of Toronto and in three hospitals in the city, with 200,000 dollars in the first year, earmarked for exchange visits, medical care and the transport of patients from Ontario.
A necessary clarification about the grant
The figure appears in distorted forms in the press of the period, because of the quality of the scans, differing from one article to another. The actual sum, confirmed by the UPI dispatches and by the correspondence with the University of Toronto, is 900,000 Canadian dollars. The correct formulation is this: in 1982 the Ontario Ministry of Health allocated the University of Toronto a grant of 900,000 Canadian dollars for a research programme on chronic skin diseases in general, not solely on epidermolysis bullosa. The first clinical study within the programme was to use the Kozak method, and Pavel Kozak was offered a consultancy contract. The grant was awarded to the university, not to him.