Studies on the Control of Acute Respiratory Infections

The successful treatment of pneumococcic, streptococcic and other bacterial infections of the respiratory tract with sulfonamides has led to a consideration of their use in the prevention of these infections and their complications. For this purpose sulfadiazine¹was chosen because of the early reports on its relatively low clinical toxicity and its high therapeutic effectiveness²against different bacterial pathogens of the respiratory tract. This preliminary report deals with the clinical conditions found in patients treated at the onset of symptoms of acute respiratory infections as compared with those who were not treated with sulfadiazine. PLAN OF STUDY The study has been conducted at Letchworth Village, a New York state institution for mental defectives. It was carried out among the group of children with the lowest mental rating who were highly susceptible to respiratory infections and who usually had an annual pneumonia incidence of more than 10 per cent.