Word: answerable
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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...David Charles Poskanzer got a phone call in his Albany, N.Y. office: "Dave, what do you know about Iceland disease?" By chance. Dr. Poskanzer, a disease detective for the U.S. Epidemic Intelligence Service (TIME. Jan. 19, 1953), was able to answer: "I've just read the entire world literature on the subject-both papers." Immediately, his boss ordered him to a spot where an outbreak of the rare disease was suspected. The spot: Punta Gorda...
CLAIM: mixed infections caused by two kinds of bacteria may need mixed antibiotics. ANSWER: such infections are rare, except in wounds, and can best be treated then by proper choice of drugs in the right amounts-not by trusting to luck that a manufacturer's choice of items and dosage will turn out to be right...
CLAIM: when a patient's life is in danger, and there has not been time to identify the disease-causing bacteria, two or more drugs provide insurance. ANSWER: this is true only if both are used in full doses-the danger is that in a fulminating infection a patient will get a packaged combination containing only half doses of each antibiotic...
CLAIM: two antibiotics may be synergistic; i.e., have a combined effect greater than the sum of their separate effects. ANSWER: no proof of this in patients (except those with heart inflammation caused by the enterococcus and a few other microbes...
CLAIM: a second antibiotic may delay the emergence of bacteria which are resistant to the first antibiotic. ANSWER: this may be true in-test tubes, but generally there is no proof that it works in human patients...