Antibiotics effectively attack most bacteria, but in fighting disease-causing pests that are smaller than bacteriachiefly the virusesthe wonder drugs have chalked up a record of failure. Last week, concluding a series of three articles in the A.M.A. Journal, a group of Navy doctors reported on an antibiotic that works well against what seems to be a form of virus disease. The antibiotic is Declomycin, a close relative to aureomycin. The disease is viral pneumonia.
Bacterial pneumonia, once a major killer, is now largely controlled by sulfa drugs and antibiotics. Viral pneumonia is another matter. Believed to be caused by many kinds...