Today’s Presentation
Program: The Cure for St. Anthony's Fire. Dawn of the Antimicrobial Age.
Speaker: William Dick, MD, Scientech Club Historian
Introduced By: Rick Whitener
Attendance: NESC: 97, Zoom: 28
Guest(s): Dixie Ihnat
Scribe: Bill Dick
Editor: Ed Nitka
View a recording of today’s Zoom presentation at:
Today's Program 051624
People born before 1936 in the U.S. were subject to many types of infection from the Streptococcus (Strep) bacteria. The year 1936 is chosen because in that year the antibiotic sulfanilamide (Sulfa) became available for use. It had been used in France and Germany for a few years before that. Prior to that, going back centuries, there was no treatment for Strep.
In 1084, people in Vienne, France were stricken by St. Anthony’s Fire. No one knew what caused the red burning rash and/or pustules on the face and neck. Some people recovered, some died. It would appear in certain cities intermittently for centuries. Perhaps there was a religious cause for the Fire. Bones of St. Anthony were brought to Vienne by a knight after a crusade. People would pray to St. Anthony’s bones. The cause was Strep.
Scientists through the years began seeing organisms under the microscope. This led to Joseph Lister’s use of carbolic acid to clean wounds, to Louis Pasteur’s germ theory, and to Robert Koch’s postulates in which he proved that the existence of microbes caused disease.
In the U.S. until 1936, there were few effective medications and only one antibiotic. There was aspirin for fever and pain, morphine for pain, digoxin for heart failure, insulin for diabetes, quinine for malaria,
Salvarsan for syphilis, and Plasmoquine and Atebrine for malaria. Sulfa was revolutionary. It was effective and relatively non-toxic.
The first sulfa compound was patented in 1908, but it was now out of patent. Both the French and German scientists patented their version of sulfa. There was no U.S. patent, so American pharmaceutical companies made their own sulfa. The Bayer Co. did most of the research and marketing of sulfa.
Sulfa cured childbed fever, then caused by Strep. Oliver Wendell Holmes in the U.S. and Ignatz Semmelweis in Vienna pioneered antiseptic procedures for the obstetrical suite. In Germany there were many word-of-mouth stories of dramatic cures. After a
scientific meeting, Perrin Long and Eleanor Bliss, both of Johns Hopkins, brought Prontosil (sulfa) from Germany to the U.S. Soon more stories appeared of miraculous cures in America. FDR, Jr. was saved by sulfa in 1936.
Sulfa was used to prevent meningitis and to treat wound infections. Sulfaguanidine was effective for dysentery due to Shigella. Sulfa was over the counter and subject to overuse. Resistance to Strep appeared in 1945 and to Gonorrhea in 1947. Then penicillin appeared and sulfa’s reign was over (or was it?) Later it was used for urinary tract infections (when paired with Trimethoprim), acne, and Pneumocystis.
Inspired by the sulfa miracle, scientists began developing new antibiotics: Tetracycline in 1945, Streptomycin in 1947, Chloramphenicol and Neomycin in 1949, Erythromycin in 1952 and Vancomycin in 1953.
The discovery of sulfa led to the miracle of modern medicine. Revolutionary treatment in heart and vascular disease appeared in the 1940’s and 1950’s. DNA was discovered in 1953 and the human genome sequenced in 2000. Kidney dialysis began in 1960 – people had their kidney function replaced by a machine! Later kidney transplantation was performed leading to other organ system transplants: heart, lung and pancreas.
Quite a story.
Bill Dick
