SEVERE PARA-AMINOSALICYLIC ACID HYPERSENSITIVITY SIMULATING MONONUCLEOSIS OR HEPATITIS

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Abstract
Thousands of tuberculous patients are now using p-aminosalicylic acid as an adjunct in the chemotherapy of their disease. The commonest side-effect noted with this drug has been gastrointestinal irritation,1 which occurs in about 10% of the patients. A smaller number of patients exhibit fever and a skin rash2 after several weeks of therapy. A severer form of hypersensitivity to p-aminosalicylic acid, which may simulate mononucleosis3 or hepatitis,4 has recently been described in the foreign literature. One of these cases was fatal.5 Eight patients exhibiting this severe type of hypersensitivity to p-aminosalicylic acid have been encountered among approximately 3,000 patients who have taken the drug in this institution over the past few years. It is most important that the condition be recognized and therapy stopped promptly, since a mistaken diagnosis of mononucleosis or hepatitis may result in continued therapy with p-aminosalicylic acid,

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