Word: pneumonia
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Dates: during 1940-1949
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...time they had created antibodies in laboratory flasks. These artificial antibodies-the substances which form in the blood to fight poisons or diseases-were capable of attacking only a few simple chemical poisons (TIME, March 30). The latest news from Caltech is even more incredible: antibodies against bacterial disease, pneumonia III (one of the several forms of lung infection), have now been made synthetically. This achievement of Biochemists Linus Pauling and Dan Campbell is still in the realm of experimental medicine, and flask-prepared solutions will not yet replace the immunizing serums for clinical use now developed in horses...
...disease is sweeping the U.S. It is known as "pneumonitis," "virus pneumonia" and a half-dozen other names. The Army, which has special reason to be worried, labels the disease "primary atypical pneumonia, etiology [cause] unknown...
Unlike flu or a cold, pneumonitis entails inflammation of the lungs; hence it can often be distinguished only by X-ray photographs. And unlike pneumonia, no bacterial cause can be found. In fact, nothing at all is known about its cause (some doctors think it may be not one but a group of related diseases). Probable cause is a virus, but researchers haven't identified it. Since doctors don't know the cause of pneumonitis, they know little about its treatment...
Strangely, a person who has been weakened by pneumonitis is not peculiarly susceptible to pneumonia bacteria or influenza viruses. The disease is mildly contagious; but prolonged rather than casual exposure seems required to bring it out. An epidemic this month at the University of Rochester medical school sent 40 nurses, students, doctors...
General symptoms are fever (usually 100°-103°), cough, chilliness, headache (often severe). Lung inflammation appears within the first few days but is seldom as extensive as in pneumonia. Sulfa drugs don't help the patient and sometimes increase a patient's misery. Treatment with pneumonia serums has also proved futile...