Human psittacosis cured by penicillin therapy.

A number of recent reports in the literature have told of cure of psittacosis in man following enormous doses of penicillin in the early stages of the disease. In most of these cases, however, the infection was experimentally induced in laboratory studies. Given late and in inadequate amounts, penicillin apparently has no beneficial effect. With a means of treatment at hand, and effective if started early, careful analysis of all cases of "atypical pneumonia" is indicated with a view to determining if the infecting agent might not be the psittacosis virus. A history of contact with birds or bird droppings should be sought in all cases of "atypical pneumonia."A case is reported in which the patient, because of contact with birds, was suspected early of having psittacosis. No benefit was noted following therapy with 100,000 units of penicillin every three hours for one day, but rapid recovery ensued when the dose was doubled.