ELIXIR TREATMENT

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22865, 21 October 1937, Page 13

ELIXIR TREATMENT

DEATHS IN AMERICA PREPARATION CONDEMNED (Received October 20, 5.5 p.m.) CHICAGO. Oct. It) The American Medical Association has disclosed the fact that nine out of 10 persons at Tulsa, Oklahoma, to whom was administered what was claimed to be an extremely effective remedy, have died. The preparation used at Tulsa, called elixir sulfanilamide, is used principally for blood infections. There were also other deaths elsewhere, the total being 14, and 3i5 shipments of the preparation which have been sent to other parts of the country are being recalled. The association, without condemning sulfanilamide, which has been hailed by the medical world, says: "lliis tragic experience should be a final warning to physicians regarding the prescribing and administering of semisecret unstandardised preparations." The Federal Government has ordered the seizure of all the sulfanilamide in the country and has advised the Canadian authorities to act similarly.

A suggestion that the sulfanilamide used in the United States might be a new preparation, apparently not tested sufficiently beforehand for its poisonous properties, was made by an Auckland specialist yesterday, when the message from Chicago was referred to him. Presumably the preparation, although a sulfanilamide, differed from that which had been used successfully in thousands of cases throughout the world, he said. One in general use in many lands, including New Zealand, was perfectly safe, and there was no record of deaths following its administration. "This must be a new preparation, a little different chemically from the one 111 common use," the doctor continued. "One preparation has been used extensively for the treatment of blood infections, and very good results indeed have been obtained. Its use has not been conlincd to any one country, but has been world-wide."