EXPERIMENTAL STUDIES ON YELLOW FEVER OCCURRING IN MERIDA, YUCATAN

Abstract

Injections into guinea pigs of the blood and the emulsions of liver and kidney obtained at autopsy from a fatal case of yellow fever in Merida induced in some of these animals, after a period of several days incubation, a rise of temperature which lasted 1, 2, or more days. When killed for examination at this febrile stage the animals invariably showed hemorrhagic areas of various size, sometimes few and sometimes numerous, in the lungs, and also, though less constantly, in the gastrointestinal mucosa, together with general hyperemia of the liver and kidneys. In a guinea pig (No. 6) inoculated with the liver emulsion of Case 1 there was a trace of jaundice on the 9th day. Injections of the blood or liver and kidney emulsions from such animals into normal guinea pigs reproduced the febrile reactions and the visceral lesions. The majority of the animals which were allowed to live and complete the course of the infection rapidly returned to normal (within several days). Examinations of these surviving guinea pigs after 2 weeks revealed the presence of rather old hemorrhagic foci in the lungs. In the course of further attempts to transfer the passage strain, a secondary infection by a bacillus of the paratyphoid group caused many deaths among the guinea pigs and resulted finally in the loss of the strain from Case 1. Most of the cultures made with the heart's blood taken at autopsy from Case 1 proved to be contaminated with a bacillus of the coli group. The contents of the apparently uncontaminated tubes were inoculated into guinea pigs, but the results were for the most part negative or vitiated by a secondary infection. Dark-field search for the leptospira with the autopsy materials was negative, although prolonged and thorough examination was not practicable at the time of these experiments. Our efforts were concentrated on obtaining positive animal transmission rather than on the time-consuming demonstration of the leptospira, which when unsuccessful does not necessarily exclude the presence of the organism in small numbers. Likewise, the dark-field work with the material from guinea pigs was confined to a brief examination and was omitted in many instances. Under these circumstances no leptospira was encountered in any of the material from Case 1. On the other hand, the results obtained with the specimens of blood from Case 2 were definitely positive, not only in the transmission of the disease directly, or indirectly by means of cultures, into guinea pigs, but also in the demonstration of the leptospira in the primary cultures and in the blood and organ emulsions of guinea pigs experimentally infected with such cultures. Definite positive direct transmissions were obtained with the specimens of blood drawn on the 2nd and 3rd days. No blood was taken on the 4th or 6th days. There were indications of abortive or mild leptospira infection in the guinea pigs inoculated with the blood taken on the 5th day. Regarding the inoculation of cultures from Case 2, it may be stated that only the cultures (leptospira +) made with the blood drawn on the 2nd day caused a definite fatal infection in guinea pigs. From this series a continuous passage in the guinea pig has been successfully accomplished. One of the guinea pigs (No. 48) inoculated with the culture 5 days old (leptospira +) made from the blood taken on the 3rd day presented typical symptoms, and a positive transfer from this to another animal (No. 98) was also made. Cultures of the blood drawn on the 5th and 7th days gave unsatisfactory results, owing to a secondary contamination. Leptospiras were detected in some of the culture tubes containing 2nd and 3rd day specimens of blood from Case 2; they were few in number and for the most part immotile, owing perhaps to some unfavorable cultural condition such as a fungus contamination. Charts 17, 18, and 19 give a summary of the experiments. See PDF for Structure.