Medicine: Another Sulfa Drug

Another sulfa drug (there are now over 1,000) may end epidemics of dysentery, one of the chief hazards of World War II. So announced Drs. Maurice Lee Moore and Charles S. Miller of Sharp & Dohme Laboratories at the Memphis meeting of the American Chemical Society last week. The drug, known as succinylsulfathiazole, is made from sulfanilamide and a fungus product. It was tried out on 40 patients at Johns Hopkins, produced no ill effects even when given in large amounts for periods as long as 16 months. Succinylsulfathiazole, said the doctors, may be important “as a protection for soldiers in the field, especially during campaigns in the tropics and where sterilization of food and drinking water is difficult.”