Madeja Ulrich-Dietmar, Schroeder Ulrike
Bayer AG Pharmaceuticals, Müllerstrasse 178, 10785 Berlin, Germany.
Trop Med Infect Dis. 2020 Mar 10;5(1):42. doi: 10.3390/tropicalmed5010042.
In the early 20th century, a series of epidemics across equatorial Africa brought African sleeping sickness (human African trypanosomiasis, HAT) to the attention of the European colonial administrations. This disease presented an exciting challenge for microbiologists across Europe to study the disease, discover the pathogen and search for an effective treatment. In 1923, the first "remedy for tropical diseases"-Suramin-manufactured by Bayer AG came onto the market under the brand name "Germanin." The development and life cycle of this product-which today is still the medicine of choice for Trypanosoma brucei (T.b), hodesiense infections-reflect medical progress as well as the successes and failures in fighting the disease in the context of historic political changes over the last 100 years.
20世纪初，赤道非洲地区爆发了一系列流行病，引起了欧洲殖民政府对非洲昏睡病（人类非洲锥虫病，HAT）的关注。这种疾病给欧洲各地的微生物学家带来了令人兴奋的挑战，促使他们研究该疾病、发现病原体并寻找有效的治疗方法。1923年，拜耳公司生产的第一种“热带疾病治疗药物”苏拉明以“Germanin”的品牌上市。这种产品的研发和生命周期——如今仍是治疗布氏锥虫（T.b）、罗德西亚锥虫感染的首选药物——反映了医学的进步，以及在过去100年历史政治变革背景下抗击该疾病的成败。
