Synergic action of penicillin and sulphathiazole in gonorrhea.

The control of venereal diseases in rural areas presents certain problems and difficulties not met with in the city. The County of Cornwall, with which this paper deals, has a scattered population of 322,500. No industrial areas exist, but there are some half dozen market towns and small seaports each with from ten to sixteen thousand inhabitants. Five clinics for the treatment of venereal diseases are established, but even so patients have to travel as much as thirty miles by indifferent bus and rail services to attend. Beds for the reception of venereal disease cases are reserved at the Royal Cornwall Infirmary, Truro, but as such accommodation is limited reliance has to be placed on efficient out-patient treatment at the clinics. The present investigation of acutr gonorrhoea was undertaken to find a treatment that could safely be employed on patients attending at once-weekly clinics and that also would give a high percentage of cures. The following three methods of treatment were investigated: (1) a single injection of 200,000 units of penicillin in oil-beeswax; (2) sulphathiazole 25 g. over five days, 5 g. being given daily; (3) a single injection of 200,000 units of penicillin in oil-beeswax on the first day, together with sulphathiazole 20 g., over four days, 5 g., being given daily. In order to obtain results that were comparable in so small a number of cases, only fresh male urethral infections showing a positive culture and smear have been recorded. The three methods were used in rotation until twenty patients in each group had been treated. The results were then reviewed and subsequently all cases received treatment by the method that had given the best rate ofcure in this preliminary trial. The penicillin preparation used was the calcium salt suspended in ethyl oleate containing 4 per cent. w/w beeswax. Penicillin