Medicine: Diasone and T. B.

Tuberculosis patients are chronically optimistic, but the 100-odd patients at the Lake County tuberculosis sanatorium near Waukegan, 111. really had something to be optimistic about last week. Diasone, the new antituberculosis drug (TIME, Nov. 8), seems to be helping some of them get well.

Energetic, sandy-haired Dr. Charles Kenneth Fetter, who runs the hospital, told the county medical society the results of 120 days of Diasone: 1) of nine minimal cases, every one was improved, most of them showed “marked improvement”; 2) of 42 moderately advanced cases, almost half were much better; 3) about one-fifth of the advanced cases were greatly improved.

As tuberculosis is a slow-moving disease, Dr. Fetter says final results can be known only after months and years. He is cautious: Diasone is “no cure-all,” should not be used outside of sanatoriums, is “not the final answer” to tuberculosis. He is also enthusiastic: Diasone may prove to be “a step ahead, probably ranking with the advent of the sanatorium [rest treatment] and collapse therapy [compressing a sick lung to make it rest].”