The Effect of Aureomycin Upon Infections with Bacterium Tularense in Experimental Animals

Tularemia is an acute disease producing a mortality rate of about 5 per cent in human beings when not treated specifically. The prolonged convalescent period observed in untreated patients is most distressing. The use of streptomycin in the therapy of tularemia in man is based upon experimental results obtained from studies with mice by Heilman (1), and its efficacy has been adequately demonstrated (2). Recently a new antibiotic, aureomycin (duomycin), has been developed at the Lederle Laboratories (3), and its value as an agent in the therapy of various infectious diseases has been described (4, 5, 6). The results obtained in treatment with aureomycin of white mice, white rats and guinea pigs infected with Bacterium tularense will be presented in this paper. The data indicate that aureomycin is effective in the treatment of tularemia in these animals. Materials and Methods.