Medicine: Streptomycin Wonders

The wonder drug, streptomycin, was at last ready for general distribution among 1,600 U.S. hospitals. Last week the Civilian Production Administration, the drug’s custodian, announced that current production (about 140,000 grams a month) would meet all demand—except for treatment of tuberculosis.

Streptomycin, an antibiotic containing a germ-killing soil organism called Actinomyces griseus, is especially effective against certain deadly “gram-negative” infections for which there was no known cure. It does the job in many a case where penicillin and the sulfa drugs fail. But it is expensive: about $16 a gram (average treatment: six to ten grams). Since the drug’s discovery in 1944 by Rutgers’ Microbiologist Selman A. Waksman, it has been tested against a wide variety of diseases by a National Research Council committee headed by Boston’s Dr. Chester S. Keefer. Their report, in last week’s Journal of the American Medical Association added up the results in 1,000 cases. Highlight of their report: streptomycin definitely can arrest tuberculosis, but it is too costly at present for practical general treatment.*

At the Mayo Clinic, Dr. H. C. Hinshaw, after finding that streptomycin stopped the growth of tubercle bacilli in guinea pigs, gave the drug to 24 hopeless human patients in advanced stages of pulmonary tuberculosis. Nineteen improved (though four relapsed after treatment stopped). Dr. Hmshaw’s conclusion: though streptomycin arrests, it does not eradicate T.B will be valuable only as a supplement to other forms of treatment. Other findings-Tularemia (rabbit fever). A seven-day treatment with streptomycin (one gram a day) promptly cured 63 out of 67 cases

“Streptomycin is by far the best therapeutic agent available for… this disease ” Urinary Tract Infections (kidneys and bladder). Of 409 patients, some of whom had been ill for 20 years, streptomycin cured 171, improved 145.

Influenzal Meningitis. Of 100 cases treated with streptomycin, 79 recovered, 17 died, four did not improve. Normal death rate: 90%-100%.

Bacteremia (bloodstream infections). Of 91 cases, 61 recovered or improved.

Peritonitis. Of 53 cases, 36 recovered, three improved.

Lung Infections. Two-thirds of the 44 cases recovered or improved.

But streptomycin also had some failures. Against typhoid fever, undulant fever and Salmonella (certain kinds of food poisoning), streptomycin showed “no dramatic results.” The drug is also mildly toxic in doses above one gram a day: 20% of the patients treated had headaches, fever, skin rashes or dizziness.

* The minimum streptomycin treatment for T.B. is three months; cost: $2,000 to $3,000.