EPIDEMIOLOGICAL ASPECTS OF LYMPHOGRANULOMA VENEREUM: A STUDY OF A GROUP OF PROSTITUTES

Abstract

The incidence of lymphogranuloma venereum (L.G.V.) or Nicolas Favre disease has decreased in recent years unlike syphilis and gonorrhoea, which have tended to increase. An analysis of the graphs given by Haustein (1927) shows that the incidence of these diseases has important variations and, even before the appearance of arsenic, bismuth, and antibiotics, syphilis had periods of lowered incidence, like other endo-epidemic diseases. It seems important to inquire into the causes of the decreased incidence of L.G.V. and to ascertain if new epidemic cycles of the disease are probable. We thought that the study of prostitutes might tell us something about the present epidemiological features of L.G.V., including the possible reservoirs from which the infection might spread. The epidemiological study of L.G.V. depends on two tests using specific antigens: Frei's intradermal reaction and the complement-fixation test. Previous studies, using the serological method alone or in association with Frei's test, have been carried out on normal individuals as well as those suffering from L.G.V. The results of these studies show that the serological test is more sensitive, becomes positive earlier, and that, according to the antibody titre, it can give some indication of the stage of the disease (Grace and Rake, 1943; Packer and Dulaney, 1947; Greaves and Taggart, 1953; King, Barwell, and Catterall, 1956; and Alergant, 1957). Beeson and Miller (1944) in the U.S.A., who made a serological study of 879 individuals not suspected of suffering from L.G.V., found a positive result in an appreciable number: 11 6 per cent. in white men,