Abstract
Since the demonstration that sulfanilamide is an effective therapeutic agent in the treatment of infections caused by the coccal group of bacteria, many tests have been made of its possible value in the treatment of other diseases of varied etiology, particularly those for which no specific drug is known. So far, sulfanilamide has not been found of value in infections caused by bacilli, filterable viruses, 1 or animal parasites. 2 In view of the belief that the drug may act to increase host-resistance and to neutralize toxins, it was thought worthwhile to test its value in the treatment of trichiniasis, a disease in which the symptoms are mainly the result of toxemia, and for which there is no known effective drug treatment.
Two experiments were performed in which full-grown rats were infected by stomach tube with known numbers of Trichinella spiralis larvae, obtained free from infected rat muscle by artificial digestion. 3 In each experiment, one group of rats were given treatment with sulfanilamide (para-amino-benzene-sulfonamide), while another group were kept as controls. The dosage of sulfanilamide was the same as that employed by Gross and Cooper 4 for the treatment of pneumococcal infections in rats, namely, 125 mg per day. The drug was ground to a fine powder, suspended in a 10% solution of gum acacia, and given to the animals by stomach tube. Details of administration are presented in Table I. Usually, treatment was begun on the day after infection, at a time when the adult worms were developing in the intestine, and was continued during the period that the young larvae were developing in the muscles.
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