RUSSIAN WOUNDED

Greymouth Evening Star, 23 May 1942, Page 2

RUSSIAN WOUNDED

SAVED BY NEW BRITISH DRUG

Thousands of lives are being saved in Russia’s armies by treating then' wounds with the group of drugs known as the sulphonamides including the famous M & 8.693. Supplies of it have formed part of shipments of drugs dispatched from Britain to Russia. In bombed cities as on battlefields many lives can be lost from the infection ol wounds. When the wounded have to be carried long distances, as in Russia, or wait their turn for .surgical operations, it mav be too late to prevent extension of the infection and the deadly bacteria from circulating through the blood stream. . When sulphonamides first came into use in medicine they were admimstei - ed by mouth or by injection and combated infection after being conveyeo to the infected tissues by the blood stream. About three years ago American surgeons showed that one ol tne sulphonamide group, known as sulphanilamide, could be applied in powder form directly to a wound and Riat, if this was done in ihe early stages, infection of the wound could be prevented. Early in the war this procedure was developed by British Army doctors in France, and. although the records obtained were largely lost in the evacuation from Dunkirk, surgeons brought back very favourable impressions ol' the new. technique. It was in London’s air raids, with hundreds of people receiving dirty wounds like those of battlefields, that a more complete body of clinical data was first obtained. , , , In the British Army wounded, and civilian “blitz” casualties, M & B 693 was much employed for local application to wounds, and another drug of this group—sulphathiazole (M & B 760) may be even more useful for this purnose. It is made by the British firm of chemists who discovered M & B 693 and also the more recent diamidines which have effected striking cures of certain tropical diseases. The introduction of M & B 693 and of the diamidines are landmarks in medical science.