Evening star., 1942-09-29

! d long tlIne. II appears mildly IN
| fectious.
Another new pneumonia, he said,
is closely akin to psittacosis, or par
rot fever, which invaded the United
| States about Is years ago. 1t is due
| to virus which is transmitted by
domestic pigeons. 1t appears to
| date somewhat milder than the rec
ognized psittacosis, apparently is not
contagious. and one is not apt to
get it without constant handling of
pigeons. A somewhat similar dis
ease, it has been found, can be con-
| tracted from chickens and ducks.
Third New Pneumonia.
The third new pneumonia is the
so-called @ fever, first known in
Australia, which first came to the
United States about five years ago.
1t is roughly akin to Rocky Noun
tain spotted fever but is not so
severe.
Three years ago, DR.. Macleod said,
conquest of the bacterial pneu-
monias seemed we'll under way.
Since then, in spite of new and more
potent sulfa drugs, the death rate
has gone up again and medical
scientists are at loss for the rea-
son. 1t may be due partly, DR.. Mac
leod believes, to the fact that the
new remedies have aroused so much
confidence that treatment is de-
layed.
Recent statistics show that cases
treated four days after onset of the
disease, which may be misdiagnosed
at first, have much higher mortal
lty rate than those treated earlier.
In order to benefit by the full po-
tency of the sulfa drugs, he said,
there should be an educational cam
palgn for early diagnosis.
A second reason is that the sulfa
preparations never have been very
effective, in animal experiments,
against type pneumonia, the most
virulent OF the commonly encoun-
tered varieties. This may be on the
increase. 1t is possible, he said, that
early treatment with specific type 3
serum combined with a sulfa drug
may reverse this trend.
A third reason, for which there
is no very good evidence at present,
is that the pneumonia organisms
may be acquiring resistance to the
drugs.
Allowed to Become Neglected.
The field of pneumonia prophy-
laxis. he said, still is quite chaotic
and was allowed to become neglected
after the initial startling sulfa sue
cesses. Vaccines prepared to date
have been of questionable value.
There is now some evidence, he
said, that type l pneumonia, one
of the most common types, can be
prevented by dosing a population
with sulfadiazone, but this would be
an extreme measure which, unless
in oire emergency, might do more
harm than good.
Experiments show that good
deal may be done to prevent in
f1uenza under certain circumstances,
said DR.. Stokes.
The efficacy of flu vaccine, pre-
pared two years ago by the Rookie
feler Institute, still is debatable
He told of experiments at the Uni
versity of Pennsylvania, however, in
which human beings were vacci-
mated and then infected with type A
influenza by breathing a prepara-
ton of the virus. The results showed
definitely not only that the anti-f1u
entibodies increased in the blood
stream but that liability to infection
was greatly reduced.
In institutions, he said a great
reduction can be brought about
from the evidence of experiments
with rats-both by placing barriers
of ultraviolet light around beds and
by spraying the air with a disin-
fectant known as propylene glycol.
Results very similar to those OBJ
tanned from vaccination have been
produced by injections with immune
serum from the blood of recently
recovered patients.
These advances, DR.. Stokes
stressed, may not apply to pandemic
influenza, which apparently disap-
peared for the time being after the
winter of 1919. None of the meth
DDS, he said, do any harm, and it
may be we'll to try all of them if an
epidemic should break out this VIM
ter.
The annual luncheon of the So
ciety was addressed by Admiral Will
fred Patterson :