The chemotherapy of viral infections

Only methisazone and amantadine of the synthetic antiviral agents are commercially available for general use, and they are used only prophylactically. Interferon inducers are promising but as yet untested in man. No doubt effective chemotherapeutic agents will in time become available but for the present and immediate future, vaccines will provide the first line of defence against disease. Methods of immunization are bound to improve and with an increasing awareness of public health measures the role of antiviral chemotherapeutic agents though important, will be minor. (Summary)

Mycoplasma infections in man and animals

Mycoplasma is the name given in 1929 to a group of micro-organisms which have been called and are better known as PPLO or pleuro pneumonia like organisms. They were called PPLO because they were like the PPO or pleuro pneumonia organisms which are responsible for a widespread contagious epidemic disease causing pleuro pneumonia in cattle. Mycoplasmas are now known to be reponsible for a typical pneumonia in human beings, as well being a likely cause of nonspecific urethritis, cervicitis, vagimitis, cystitis and a possible cause of arthritis. These organisms also cause pleuro pneumonia of cattle and goats, agalactia of sheep and arthritis in birds, sheep, goats, cows, rats fowls and pigs. Mycoplasma gallinarum are said to be the cause of a widespread epidemic disease in poultry known as C.R.D. or cardio respiratory disease. Mycoplasma organisms are gram negative but stain better with Giemsa stain. They grow well in beef infusion broth or on agar enriched with 10.20 percent horse serum and yeast extract. The addition of thallium acetate and penicillin will prevent the growth of most other organisms. The colonies are embedded in the media and give a fried-egg appearance or a rough granular growth. They are sensitive to tetrayclin but resistant to sulfonamides and penicillin. These organisms were cultured from the following human sources - bartholin gland abscess, mouth, throat, urogenital tract, lower intestinal tract, brain, blood and umbilicus. Diagnosis of mycoplasma infections can be made by growth in yeast extract, horse serum agar medium or broth, indirect haemagglutination-inhibition test using tanned sheep red blood cells, complement fixation test, immunofluorescence, cold agglutinins and streptococcus M.G. agglutination (AU)