Overdosage?

For children's tonsillitis, many U.S. doctors have been prescribing a new drug called Analbis. The drug, a bismuth compound, has an affinity for lymph and attacks the infection in sore throats. In the last three years doctors have used it for hundreds of thousands of patients.

Last week they abruptly stopped using it. New York City health officers flashed to the nation the tragic news that at least twelve small patients who had been treated with the drug had died.

The first warning came from a Norwalk, Conn, hospital. Three baby boys, after being dosed with Analbis rectal suppositories, came down with violent poisoning symptoms--vomiting, cramps, drowsiness, convulsions. One was saved by an antitoxin and the other two died of liver poisoning. The drug's manufacturers promptly stopped shipments.

Last week New York City health officials, after discovering six other deaths suspected to have been caused by the same drug, combed the city's drugstores to seize supplies. Meantime, similar deaths were reported in New Jersey, Michigan, Texas.

What had gone wrong? One guess: overdosing. Children whose deaths could definitely be attributed to the drug had all received more than the recommended amount (half a suppository each 24 hours). Two of the preparation's ingredients--bismuth and heptadienecarboxylic acid--are dangerous except in very small doses.

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