CRYPTOCOCCUS MENINGITIS (TORULOSIS) TREATED WITH A NEW ANTIBIOTIC, ACTIDIONE

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Abstract
THERE is no accepted effective therapy for Cryptococcus meningitis. Patients are treated empirically, and the results are poor. The present paper is the report of a case in which the relatively new antibiotic, actidione,® was used, with gratifying results. Experiments with other therapeutic agents and a second case of the disease treated unsuccessfully by the conventional methods are included. This infection is caused by a fungus popularly known as Torula histolytica and so named in 1916 by Stoddard and Cutler,1 who believed that cysts were caused in the host's tissues by the histolytic action of the fungus. Actually, the "cysts" were masses of the fungi with their capsules. Mycologists now properly call the organism Cryptococcus neoformans.2 The infection caused by this fungus is cryptococcosis. REPORT OF CASES A white man aged 39, a paper-mill worker, began to lose weight, strength, and energy in October, 1948. Vitamins afforded