A 13 month old infant had influenzal meningitis which persisted for four weeks in spite of ordinarily adequate doses of streptomycin and sulfadiazine and the delayed administration of specific rabbit anti-influenzal serum. When the patient seemed hopelessly ill these medications were discontinued and a new antibiotic, polymyxin B (aerosporin), was administered. Following this, the infant recovered completely.The infecting organism (type b H. influenzae) was resistant in vitro to 80 units of streptomycin and partially inhibited by sulfadiazine, but was sensitive to 0.43 units per cc. of polymyxin B.Polymyxin B was given both intramuscularly and intrathecally. On the fourth day of this new therapy, the child seemed to be more toxic, but improvement thereafter was rapid, and there were no other symptoms or signs of toxicity which might be attributed to the polymyxin. Re-examination of this infant approximately three months later revealed that he was functioning intellectually on a low normal level for his age. There were no neurologic or other physical defects.
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