Aureomycin and Penicillin Therapy in Leptospirosis (Weil's Disease)

Although penicillin has been reported to give encouraging results in human leptospirosis (Weil's disease), 1 review of many of the published case reports leaves its specific therapeutic value open to question. Aureomycin has been demonstrated 2 to be more than two times as effective as penicillin, weight for weight, in treatment of experimental leptospirosis. To the best of our knowledge, no case of spirochetal jaundice treated with aureomycin had been reported at the time our patient was admitted to the hospital. In this case, aureomycin appears to have been rapidly effective after penicillin had failed to halt progression of the toxic stage of the disease. REPORT OF CASE S. P., a Negro aged 40, was admitted to the hospital on July 18, 1949, complaining of chills, fever and generalized malaise of eight days' duration. Two days prior to admission jaundice had developed, and his urine became dark brown. He also