Again, Sulfanilamide

Sulfanilamide, a dye introduced to U. S. pharmacologists last year under the trade names "Prontosil" and "Prontylin," has been found effective in blood poisoning, gonorrhea, childbed fever, erysipelas, cerebrospinal meningitis and other bacterial diseases (TIME, Dec. 28, et seq.). Last week conservative bacteriologists of the National Institute of Health announced that this astounding new drug seemed to be a cure for an entirely separate class of diseases, namely, those caused by viruses. Among virus diseases are the common cold, influenza, infantile paralysis, parrot fever. Another disease due to a virus is "benign lymphocytic choriomeningitis," which was recognized as a distinct ailment only a few years ago because almost anything may cause its chief symptoms (headache, vomiting, slight fever). From a case of this lymphocytic choriomeningitis. Dr. Charles Armstrong and associates of the National Institute of Health acquired a virus with which they inoculated mice. Half of the mice also received injections of Sulfanilamide. Those did not die of the infection, but those who received none of the drug did die, causing Dr. Armstrong and associates to infer that the sulfanilamide may be the desperately sought cure for the common cold, influenza, infantile paralysis and the other virus diseases.

One circumstance which prevents doctors going the whole hog in the case of Sulfanilamide is that they do not know whether it cures by killing germs and virus in the body or by stimulating the body to kill the invaders with its own, natural protective forces. And conscientious doctors use no drugs ignorantly. Another objection to Sulfanilamide is the fact that its toxicity is not known. After curing some people of blood poisoning, it seems to have caused agranulocytosis (a dangerous deficiency of white blood cells). When a doctor must decide between blood poisoning which is killing his patient or the risk of causing agranulocytosis, however, the choice is simple. That Sulfanilamide is being abused, no doctor doubts. In Manila, men are using it instead of tried-&-true chemical or mechanical prophylactics against venereal disease, reverting to the traditional, false notion that an attack of gonorrhea is "no worse than a bad cold."

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