THERAPEUTIC CURE OF ACUTE EXPERIMENTAL TOXOPLASMOSIS IN ANIMALS

Abstract

The disease toxoplasmosis is almost invariably fatal in man. Therapy has been unsuccessful; in the few recoveries which have occurred there is no convincing evidence that this outcome was appreciably influenced by the nonspecific medication employed. A principal cause for failure of therapy may well have been the short period in which the patients were available for treatment, since death has often followed the appearance of the initial symptoms within a few days. Practically, therefore, decidedly beneficial results in man may be expected only from those drugs which in animals have experimentally been proved effective when administered during the acute disease and shortly before death. In this report it will be shown that appropriate sulfonamides will cure a high percentage of otherwise fatally infected animals even when treatment is instituted a few days before the date of expected death. It is felt that these results warrant thorough trial of the