STREPTOMYCIN IN PULMONARY TUBERCULOSIS IN CHILDHOOD: RESULTS IN FOUR CHILDREN

Abstract

In January 1944 Schatz, Bugie and Waksman¹ first described a new agent, streptomycin—a substance exhibiting antibiotic activity against gram-negative and gram-positive organisms. Shortly following this first publication, they showed that this drug had definite inhibitory effects against Mycobacterium tuberculosis in vitro. In controlled experiments Feldman and Hinshaw² demonstrated that streptomycin would protect guinea pigs against tuberculosis. In animals which were infected, lesions were shown to heal under streptomycin therapy. Even in animals that showed no gross lesions at autopsy, Myco. tuberculosis could be recovered from the spleens, and it appeared that streptomycin had a suppressive rather than a sterilizing effect. In 39 per cent of their series, the tuberculin test was reversed from positive before treatment to negative following treatment. In a recent report from the Mayo Clinic on a series of 34 cases of tuberculosis treated with streptomycin, Feldman and Hinshaw³ have made certain further observations