1942 - Medicine

Medicine

The entire world supply of penicillin is barely enough to cure one serious case of meningitis, but penicillin saves New Haven (Conn.) Hospital patient Anne Miller (née Scheafe), 33, from death in March after sulfa drugs have failed to arrest her streptococcal infection, which has kept her hospitalized for a month with periods of delirium and temperatures that have spiked as high as 106° F.; batches of the antibiotic are rushed to Boston in November to help burn victims of the Cocoanut Grove nightclub fire avoid infection (see 1943; Florey, 1941).

French medical researcher André Loubatiére pioneers oral drugs for diabetics with his finding that sulfa drugs, developed in Germany 7 years ago, are closely related chemically to para-amino benzoic acid (PABA) and produce a lowering of blood sugar levels without restricting dietary sugar intake (see 1937).

French medical researcher Bernard Halpern, 37, and others produce the first antihistamine to be used successfully in humans. Antergan (phenbenamine) combats the substance that serves as a mediator in the pathogenesis of allergic diseases such as rhino-conjunctivitis, urticaria (hives), and asthma (see Bovet, 1944).

German-born U.S. biochemist Konrad (Emil) Bloch, 30, and David Rittenberg discover that the two-carbon compound acetic acid is the major building block in the 30 or more steps in the biosynthesis of cholesterol (see 1913). The work of Bloch and his various colleagues will facilitate research on the relation between blood serum cholesterol levels and atherosclerosis (see nutrition [Keys], 1953).

Spinal anesthesia is introduced in U.S. obstetrics, allowing women to feel nothing from the waist down yet remain conscious. The technique requires the use of forceps since the mother cannot push out the fetus (critics say the new procedure merely helps health professionals justify higher fees), but it will become routine at many hospitals.

The Kaiser Foundation Health Plan has its beginnings in a 54-bed hospital at Oakland, Calif., dedicated by industrialist Henry J. Kaiser. A pioneer health maintenance organization, the Foundation will often be called Kaiser-Permanente after the creek in the Santa Cruz Mountains where Kaiser built his first cement plant.