Likely Route Of Infection Research Articles

COMPARISON OF THE MODES OF SPREAD AND THE INCIDENCE OF TUBERCULOSIS AND LEPROSY

It has been assumed in the past that attack-rates for leprosy are lower than those for tuberculosis, that leprosy is spread by direct person-to-person contact, and that in leprosy the skin is the most likely route of infection. However, the numbers of Mycobacterium tuberculosis in sputum from open cases of tuberculosis and of M. leprœ in the nasal secretions of patients with lepromatous leprosy are similar; in addition, attack-rates in family or household contacts for the two diseases in comparable populations in South India are of the same order. While these findings do not prove that modes of spread and routes of infection are identical for the two diseases, they are consistent with this possibility.

Susceptibility of Hamsters to the Oral Administration of Mycobacterium johnei

THE development of a method of counting viable units of bacilli in the tissues of sheep1 has enabled us to re-examine the potentialities of laboratory animals as experimental hosts for M. johnei. The oral route of challenge was chosen because it is the most likely route of infection in naturally occurring Johne's disease. Progressive infection in the tissues after oral dosing was considered to be a better test of the true susceptibility of animals than the direct introduction of bacilli by parenteral methods.