Sulfa drug in full Sulfonamide Drug, sulfa as well spelled as Sulpha, any affiliate of a cluster of synthetic antibacterial drugs containing the sulfanilamide molecular structure, and including sulfanilamide, sulfadiazine, sulfapyridine, sulfathiazole, and supplementary substances.
The antibacterial effects of sulfonamides were original experimental in “1932, when Gerhard Domagk, a German bacteriologist and pathologist, distinguished the property of Prontosil a red dye on streptococcal infections in mice”. (Bovet, 2003) As the narrative goes, he then gave the drug to his own daughter, curing a strep contamination and saving her death. French investigators were first to provide evidence that sulfonamide was the active principle in the dye. American researchers later helped create a rational basis for sulfonamide chemotherapy. Sulfonamides were the first chemical substances that were systematically used to cure and prevent bacterial infections in humans.
They are bacteriostatic drugs i.e., they inhibit the growth and multiplication of bacteria but do not kill them. They act by “interfering with enzyme systems essential to normal metabolic and growth patterns of bacteria”. (The Mosby Medical Encyclopedia, 1996) Although more than 5,000 sulfa drugs have been prepared and tested, fewer than 20 continue to have therapeutic value because resistant strains of bacteria have developed.
Sulfa drugs are assigned to four groups based on the briskness with which they are captivated and excreted. The most common side effects of sulfa drugs comprise nausea, vomiting, and mental confusion. Other side effects contain fever, skin eruptions, anemia, leukopenia, and irritation of the liver or kidneys. More compelling antibacterial drugs have largely replaced the sulfa drugs. They are still used, however, “in the treatment of urinary tract infection”. (Web 1)
Sulfa drugs are the oldest antibiotics accessible and are also amongst the best. Sulfa was first used in 1930's. Sulfa drugs include sulfamethoxazole, a component of
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