Meningitis Serum

Influenzal meningitis (not related to influenza or epidemic meningitis) used to kill 92% to 100% of all cases. But Manhattan's Dr. Hattie Elizabeth Alexander loses only 25% of her patients. Dr. Alexander's lifesaving treatment consists of a special serum and sulfadiazine. Said she last week: "If treatment were always prompt, mortality could be brought near the zero mark."

Dr. Alexander developed her serum in 1938. It is made by injecting rabbits with Hemophilus Infiuenzae (bacteria responsible for the disease), then making an extract of the rabbit's blood.

In a typical case (a child under two), Dr. Alexander estimates the severity of the infection by measuring the sugar and chloride in the patient's spinal fluid. If the level is low, the infection is severe. Treatment begins with an injection of sulfadiazine and a continuous slow drip of salt solution into a vein. After the drip has gone on for about four hours, a measured amount of the special rabbit serum is put into the reservoir of weak salt solution. The amount used depends on the amount of infection. All the serum is given in two hours.

Next day the spinal fluid is tested again. If sugar and chlorides have come up to normal (they usually do in that time), the serum dose need not be repeated. After that, blood tests and sulfadiazine by mouth go on for a week, just in case.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.