PNEUMONIA CURE

Evening Post, Volume CXXV, Issue 143, 20 June 1938, Page 5

PNEUMONIA CURE

USE OF NEW DRUG

CHRISTCHURCH DOCTOR'S VIEWS (By Telegraph—Press Association.) CHRISTCHURCH, June 18. "Do not let people delude themselves that in sulphonamide derivatives we have at last a universal cure-all," said Dr. A. B. Pearson, pathologist at Christchurch Hospital, when he was shown a cablegram quoting cures affected by the new sulphonamide drug. . "We have been "using this product at the Christchurch Hospital for some [time past, and, although it has been j amazingly effective in some cases, it is useless in others. Only certain strains of streptococci—which themselves are only one division of a host of diseasecausing bacteria—are destroyed by sulphonamide," said .Dr. Pearson. These are haemolytic streptococci. "Sometimes pneumonia is caused by bacteria that can be destroyed by sulphonamide, but very often it is not. There is a tremendous number of microbes that can cause a condition of pneumonia, including 33 different types of pneumococcus alone. Similarly many different sorts of bacteria , can produce meningitis.

"It is a peculiar thing that one type of streptococcus is destroyed by sulphonamide, while its first cousin is not. In pneumonia the recovery . of the

patient depends largely on the nursing. I Drugs have their use, but careful and■ expert nursing is the deciding factor in saving the life of the patient suffering from pneumonia. The woman whose case is mentioned in the cablegram would not have recovered without good nursing, sulphonamide or no."

A cable message from London on Saturday stated that the "Lancet" publishes an account of a remarkably successful treatment for pneumonia, including the case of an old woman whose left lung had collapsed, with a recent sulphonamide derivative called May and Baker 693. "There is no doubt that it provides a new weapon of the greatest effectiveness," says "The Times."

A distinguished bacteriologist states: "It seems too good to be true, and we can scarcely allow ourselves to believe it. Diseases of such a desperate character as severe pneumonia, streptococcal meningitis, and puerperal fever are now curable with the sulphanilamide groups of drugs."