Virulent treponema pallidum recovered from a stillborn infant after twenty-six hours

Abstract

Stillborn, congenitally syphilitic infants are the chief sources of material for the demonstration of treponema pallidum in tissues, because it is generally known that their organs commonly contain great numbers of the organisms. That the treponema occasionally retains its virulence for some hours after the death of the host, is not generally recognized and is, we believe, a new observation. Recently, we recovered virulent, actively motile, treponema pallidum from a stillborn infant 26 hours after it had been delivered, and we are reporting it to call attention to the fact that the chance of accidental infection from careless handling of syphilitic tissues is not as remote as is generally supposed. In this instance, the serum from superficial skin blebs and from crushed lung tissues were examined by the dark-field method, and great numbers of actively motile treponema were found. Rabbits, which were then inoculated intratesticularly with the material, developed the typical lesions of experimental syphilis. The case is reported rather fully, since the mother's history presented some interesting features; the necropsy findings were somewhat unusual; and the well preserved state of the fetus may help to explain the retained virulence of the treponemas which it harbored.