Studies on the Prevention of Rheumatic Fever: The Effect of Time of Initiation of Treatment of Streptococcal Infections on the Immune Response of the Host 1

Previous studies have established the fact that penicillin treatment of acute streptococcal pharyn- gitis results in a marked suppression of antibody formation (1, 2, 3). This is in contrast to the fail- ure of penicillin treatment to alter the immune re- sponse in patients with pneumococcal pneumonia (4). It has been suggested that in the latter case, sufficient pneumococcal antigen is formed during the early phases of pneumonia to provide a maximal antigenic challenge before penicillin therapy is in-