Introduction - Uppsala Monitoring Centre

Chapter 14. Streptomycin
treptomycin was originally discovered in January, 1944, by Schatz, Bugie
S
and Waksman. It was extracted from colonies of Actnomyces griseus, but its
purity varied. It is scarcely absorbed at all by mouth and was given either
subcutaneously, intramuscularly, intravenously or intrathecally. The main
problem has been the development of resistance. In the beginning supplies
were very scarce and only a few US hospitals had supplies. Reports of its activity for
the treatment of tuberculosis in humans date from 1945.
Animal toxicity
Guinea pigs and mice – well tolerated (Molitor, 1947).
Monkeys and dogs–transient anaemia, proteinuria with casts and blood in the
urine. Dogs showed signs of vestibular dysfunction (Hinshaw and Feldman, 1948).
Fatty metamorphoses in parenchymal cells of the liver and tubular epithelium of the
kidneys.
1944 January Schatz, Bugie and Waksman discovered Streptomycin (Schatz et al.,
1944).
1944 September
Streptomycin first used clinically
1945 September
First report of its use. Thirty four patients had a dose between
800,000–1,200,000 Streptomycin units per kilogram per day
(1,000,000 streptomycin units = 1 Gram streptomycin).
1. Histamine reactions: throbbing headache and flushing
2. Mild malaise, myalgia, and rarely arthralgia
3. Four patients with fever
4. One case of transient deafness and three cases of disturbed
vestibular function (Hinshaw and Feldman, 1945).
1945 Ten patients
1. Toxic effects: headache, flushes, palpitations, urticaria and fever
(Zintel et al., 1945)
Irritation at the injection site, chills and fever, flushing, toxic erythema,
urticaria, joint pains, nausea, albuminuria and microscopic
haematuria (Heilman et al., 1945)
1945 October Three patients.
1. Peculiar taste in the mouth, headache, flushing, and two had
nausea
2. Soreness and induration of the injection site (Anderson & Jewell,