Treatment of bubonic plague with sulfonamides and antibiotics.

To assess the curative value of different drugs in bubonic plague infection, white mice were infected in the laboratory with living Pasteurella pestis, and the treatment with the drug to be tested was begun either 48 or 72 hours after infection, it taking 48-72 hours for the development in mice of septicaemia-the decisive factor in plague infection. Sulfathiazole, sulfapyridine, sulfamerazine, sulfamethazine, sulfadiazine, antiplague serum, penicillin, streptomycin, aureomycin, chloramphenicol, and oxytetracycline were tested. Sulfapyridine and penicillin gave no protection, but the remainder had a curative effect in 50% or more of the animals.