As treatment of pneumococcal disease impacted the transformation of S. pneumoniae, medical interventions targeting the infection were critical to the disease’s history. Research into treatment options against the disease began almost immediately after the bacteria’s identification.
One of the first antimicrobials to be studied as a possible treatment against pneumococcal disease was a quinine derivative known as optochin. Optochin, however, had a narrow window of effectiveness between toxic and therapeutic doses. The development of Optochin as a potential treatment of S. pneumoniae was quickly discontinued due to the risk of toxicity.
The next treatment of S. pneumoniae involved the use of antiserum derived first from animals (rabbits and horses) then from humans. During the 1930s and 40s, human antiserum was considered the primary course of treatment for pneumococcal pneumonia. It was also during this timeframe that the treatment of the individual patient with pneumococcal disease evolved into a “community” responsibility, and pneumonia became one of the leading health concerns in the U.S.
The Metropolitan Life Insurance Company, which had lost over $24 million dollars in death benefits in the wake of the 1918-1919 Spanish influenza, led as the largest campaign contributor in the fight against the respiratory disease. In 1937, it joined with the U.S. Health Service to produce a 12-minute film on pneumococcal pneumonia, which debuted at New York City’s famous Radio City Music Hall. Pneumococcal pneumonia was declared a national health emergency that required a coordinated effort between the public, physicians, and health agencies in order to advance and promote medical treatments to target the disease.
By 1940, approximately two thirds of the U.S. states and territories would develop pneumonia-control programs and federal funding for pneumococcal increased nearly 60-fold in three years. In 1940, pneumonia and influenza was reported to be the fifth leading cause of infectious disease death in the U.S, and was reported to occur at a rate of 70.3 cases per 100,000 people.
During this era, a new pneumococcal treatment option became available in the form of an antimicrobial compound known as sulfapyridine. When published research noted its ability to reduce pneumococcal disease mortality rates, it quickly became the most popular treatment against the disease. Its use increased even further when it was used to successfully treat Sir Winston Churchill’s bacterial pneumonia.
The success of sulfapyridine, and eventually penicillin, against pneumococcal pneumonia resulted in a decline in the use of human antiserum and by the late 1940s, all pneumococcal control programs had been discontinued.
