Drug Contamination with Diethylstilbestrol

Abstract

SEVEN boys and girls, one to nine years of age, accidentally received some diethylstilbestrol with their prescribed isonicotinic acid hydrazide (INH) owing to an error in drug manufacture. The fact that these children were on a hospital ward permitted us to make careful observation of the resultant signs and symptoms and relate them to the dose of diethylstilbestrol ingested. We wish to report these observations in detail and to call attention to the problem of drug contamination.Description of OutbreakA three-and-a-half-year-old girl (Case 7) hospitalized on a children's tuberculosis ward for the treatment of her primary disease was noted . . .