The White Plague Returns · Episode 5 of 12 · 21 min
The Magic Bullet
The first drug that could cure tuberculosis came from a dish of soil microbes, and within a few years the bacterium was learning to resist it. The episode follows streptomycin from Rutgers, the credit dispute, and the British sealed-envelope trial to PAS, isoniazid and combination therapy. A Madras study of the poorest families then showed the cure could be given at home, and found some pills were not being swallowed.
Who's who
- Albert Schatz+1 more episodeRutgers student who isolated streptomycin; recognized as co-discoverer in a settlement
- Selman Waksman+1 more episodeRutgers microbiologist who alone won the 1952 Nobel Prize for streptomycin
- William FeldmanMayo Clinic pathologist who tested streptomycin on guinea pigs and patients
- Corwin HinshawMayo Clinic physician who tested streptomycin in the first human patients
- Austin Bradford HillStatistician who designed the 1948 trial's random allocation
- Jörgen LehmannReported para-aminosalicylic acid as a TB treatment in 1946
- Irving SelikoffSea View Hospital physician who reported first isoniazid results in 1952
- Wallace FoxBritish physician who helped lead the Madras Centre and studied self-administered drugs
Where it happens
- Rutgers University, New Jersey+2 more episodesLaboratory where streptomycin was isolated
- Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minnesota+1 more episodeWhere streptomycin was first tested in guinea pigs and patients
- Sea View Hospital, Staten IslandReported first isoniazid results in 1952
- Madras, IndiaSite of the home-versus-sanatorium treatment study
Timeline
- January 1, 1944Schatz, Bugie and Waksman announce streptomycin in a scientific paper
- October 30, 1948The Medical Research Council trial report appears in the British Medical Journal
- December 1950Schatz's lawsuit is settled and he is recognized as co-discoverer
- 1952Isoniazid is launched and Waksman alone receives the Nobel Prize
- 1956The Tuberculosis Chemotherapy Centre opens in Madras
- 1959Madras home-versus-sanatorium results appear in the WHO Bulletin
Still debated
Who discovered streptomycin is still argued: the 1950 settlement recognized Schatz, yet the 1952 Nobel went to Waksman alone. Whether the 1948 trial was the first randomized trial depends on how one counts, and evidence on whether supervised treatment is needed supports neither everyone watched nor no one.
