AUREOMYCIN THERAPY IN HUMAN BRUCELLOSIS DUE TO BRUCELLA MELITENSIS

Abstract

Experimental and clinical investigations have shown that a combination of streptomycin and sulfadiazine provides a specific therapy for human brucellosis.¹The clinical material available at the University of Minnesota Hospitals has been restricted to those cases in which the disease was due to Brucella abortus. Because the combination of drugs altered favorably the clinical course of disease caused by Br. abortus, arrangements were made to treat a group of patients in Mexico, D. F., Mexico, having the more malignant form of brucellosis due to Brucella melitensis. The plan was to treat 100 patients with streptomycin and sulfadiazine. Previous trials with sulfadiazine alone at the Mexico General Hospital had shown that only an occasional case of brucellosis was improved after treatment. Only those patients were to be selected from whose blood cultures Br. melitensis was isolated. The studies began early in 1948. In general, a standardized schedule of doses was