Chloramphenicol and terramycin in the treatment of pneumonic plague

Thirteen patients proved to have pneumonic plague through isolation of Past. pestis from the upper respiratory tract have recovered under antibiotic therapy. Of this group, five patients were treated solely with chloramphenicol, two with terramycin and three with streptomycin. A combination of antibiotics was used in the three additional patients. Chloramphenicol, terramycin and streptomycin produced dramatic clinical response in those patients first receiving therapy prior to the twentieth hour of onset of illness. Two patients treated later in the course of their illness (twenty-fourth and fortieth hour of disease) succumbed to the infection.