Streptomycin quickly proved its value against many forms of tuberculosis, but one of the deadliest held out against the wonder drug: tuberculous meningitis. A particular enemy of children (its bacilli attack the covering of the brain and spinal column), tuberculous meningitis used to mean swift and almost certain death; the few survivors were hopelessly crippled. Now, the U.S. Public Health Service reports, the death rate has been cut almost in half, and the damage to survivors greatly reduced.
The best treatment, doctors now believe, calls for injections of streptomycin into the spinal fluid as well as the muscles. Because some tubercle bacilli...
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