TREATMENT OF BRONCHITIS

Press, Volume XC, Issue 27274, 15 February 1954, Page 10

TREATMENT OF BRONCHITIS

Advances Reported SUCCESSFUL USE OF ANTIBIOTICS NEW YORK. Chronic respiratory infections are today among the most common and costly of all public health problems in nearly every part of the world, recent studies indicate. Of these ailments, tuberculosis is probably the most widely known and feared. But medical science has found that less dramatic, but often equally stubborn lung conditions account for a surprisingly large percentage of disability. One of the worst troubles is chronic bronchitis, which causes the loss 13,000 man-years of work annually in England and Wales alone. Many factors tend to aggravate this infection of the bronchial tybes. Of these, cold damp air and fog are the best-recognised, but contamination of the atmosphere with industrial gases and waste particles is also a major offender. Recent heavy fogs in various parts of Europe have been accompanied by marked increases in the incidence and severity of bronchitis, according to experts. Though little can be done to eliminate such troublesome atmospheric factors, the germs in the irritated respiratory tract can now be checked with the neWer antibiotics, physicians report. The successful application of antibiotic therapy has been made possible by identification of the germs responsible for chronic bronchitis. This was a major puzzle for many years for a variety of organisms is usually found in patients’ bronchial tubes. Recently, however, studies at the Institute of Diseases of the Chest in London have shown that two—and only twotypes of germs apparently are concerned in most attacks of chronic bronchitis. These are the pneumococcus, the organism also, responsible for most forms of pneumonia, and Hemophilus influensae, the bacterium once erroneously thought to cause influenza. Limitations of Penicillin

Studying the effectiveness of various antibiotics in eradicating these two germs from the respiratory tracts of sufferers, Dr. C. H. Stuart-Harris and his associates report that penicillin is highly successful against the pneumococcus, but not so effective against H. influenzae. They found that the newer antibiotics, such as terramycin, often stopped this group of germs. Their report appeared in the “Quarterly Journal of Medicine,” a British publication.

This study confirms an earlier report from Switzerland by doctors G. Bickel and H. Plattner that the action of terramycin was “appreciably superior to that of the other antibiotics” in various cases of chronic bronchitis, including bronchitis complicated by asthma. Recently, American investigators showed that allergic individuals offer a special problem in the control of chronic respiratory infections. These patients have a tendency to exaggerated responses of the mucous membranes lining the respiratory tract, and thus are more prone to secondary infections.

To prevent bronchitis from precipitating asthmatic attacks, doctors S. D. Klotz and Clarence Bernstein administered terramycin to 114 asthmatic patients suffering from bronchitis and other respiratory ailments. They reported in a medical journal, “Antibiotics and Chemotherapy,” that this antibiotic is of marked value in infections of the respiratory tracts of allergic individuals. Chronic bronchitis remains a complicated problem, particularly during periods of unfavourable atmospheric conditions. Though the weather cannot be changed, many physicians now believe that an effective medical attack on the crippling disease is at last in sight.