EFFECTS OF SULFANILAMIDE AND SULFAPYRIDINE ON THE KOCH-WEEKS BACILLUS (HAEMOPHILUS INFLUENZAE)

Abstract

The Koch-Weeks bacillus (Haemophilus influenzae)¹ is one of the most frequent causes of conjunctivitis. It is commonly regarded as a more or less benign organism, producing a self-limited contagious inflammation of the conjunctiva. However, it not infrequently produces corneal ulceration, severe purulent conjunctivitis or a persistent muco-purulent conjunctivitis. This organism is therefore of sufficient importance to justify an investigation of its susceptibility to sulfanilamide and sulfapyridine. SUMMARY OF PREVIOUS LITERATURE Long and Bliss² in 1937 found that sulfanilamide in a concentration of 10 mg. per hundred cubic centimeters inhibited the growth of the influenza bacillus in vitro. The organisms were grown in blood broth cultures, the inhibition of growth being determined by gross comparison with control cultures.³ The strain of organism used was thought to be an encapsulated "mucoid" type a.⁴ Povitsky,⁵ using a strain of H. influenzae isolated from a patient with meningitis, investigated