Attacking the pneumococcus -- a hundred years' war.

The battle with pneumococcus over the past century is reminiscent of the Hundred Years' War, the struggle between England and France that was interrupted by truces and stalemates. Streptococcus pneumoniae was isolated by Pasteur in 1881 and was soon recognized as the commonest cause of lobar pneumonia. When Dochez and Gillespie divided S. pneumoniae into 4 types (there are currently 90) on the basis of capsular antigens, the fatality rate associated with untreated pneumococcal pneumonia was 33 percent. By 1936, the use of type-specific antiserum reduced mortality to about 18 percent. Sulfonamides were introduced in the 1930s for the treatment . . .