| Birth: | Mar. 27, 1912
Dublin Hill
County Tipperary, Ireland | | Death: | Nov. 3, 2009
Edinburgh, Scotland | 
Medical Pioneer. A pulmonologist, he devised the first effective treatment regimen for tuberculosis (TB) during the 1950s. The child of a physician, he received his M.D. from Cambridge University, then took specialty training at St. Thomas Hospital in London; joining the Royal Army in 1939, Sir John served at field hospitals in Europe and the Middle East. Peace left him out of work until he accepted a registrar (senior faculty) position at London's Brompton Hospital where, in 1946, he became one of the first physicians to treat TB using the then-new antibiotic streptomycin. At the time the disease often called "consumption" was roughly 50% fatal. Trials with streptomycin proved initially promising, but there were problems; the medication was expensive, had to be given by injection, and caused eighth cranial nerve damage, and thus sensorineural hearing loss, in virtually everybody who took it for an extended period. Further, the mycobacterium became drug resistant after about three months of single medication therapy, leading to relapse. Combining streptomycin with para amino salicylic acid (PAS) helped some, but PAS showed significant gastrointestinal side effects and drug interactions. In 1952, Sir John became chairman of respiratory disease at Edinburgh University during a TB epidemic, and just as a third medication, isoniazid (INH), was becoming available to treat the condition. The doctor was able to demonstrate that three-drug therapy over a long course works; in a 1958 presentation to the British Medical Association, he was able to report that all 63 patients who took the medicines for a year-and-a-half were cured. Sir John was knighted in 1977, the same year he retired from the University of Edinburgh. He remained active until the end as a researcher with the World Health Organization, continuing to seek better ways to fight TB. At his death, the original three drug program had long been supplanted, with streptomycin and PAS rarely used (though INH remained the cornerstone of TB treatment), but with the multiple-drug-over-long-time model remaining valid, not only for TB, but for cancer, AIDS, and other conditions. (bio by: Bob Hufford)
Search Amazon for John Crofton | | | Burial:
Mortonhall Crematorium
Edinburgh
City of Edinburgh, Scotland |
Maintained by: Find A Grave
Originally Created by: Bob Hufford
Record added: Nov 21, 2009
Find A Grave Memorial# 44627217 |
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