The Animal Parasites of ManFantham, Harold Benjamin
Science
The Animal Parasites of Man
Fantham, Harold Benjamin
Medical parasitology
The spirochætes occur in the body fluid of the lice and can pass in
it to the adjacent organs. Thus they probably find their way into
the genital organs, and into the eggs of the lice. Eggs laid twenty
to thirty days after the parent became infected have retained the
infection, and the larvæ issuing from such eggs must have contained
some form of spirochætes, for an emulsion of either the eggs or the
larvæ produced spirochætosis when inoculated into monkeys. Further
details regarding the spirochætosis in the eggs of the lice and
in the larvæ are needed. Hereditary infection, however, has been
demonstrated, but is not very common. Sergent and Foley (1914) state
that the spirochæte possesses a very small and virulent form which it
assumes during apyrexial periods in man and during a period following
an infecting meal in the louse. Nicolle and Blanc (1914) find that
the organisms are infective in the louse just before they reappear
as spirochætes. Nicolle and Blaizot found that female lice were more
susceptible to spirochætes than males, four times as many females as
males being infected.
Tictin (1897) found _S. recurrentis_ in bugs recently fed on
patients, and infected a monkey with the fluids of crushed bugs.
Karlinski (1902) found the spirochætes in bed-bugs in infected
houses. There is some other evidence to show that bugs may transmit
the spirochæte in Nature. Further researches are needed regarding the
relationship of bed-bugs and human spirochætosis.
Multiplication of _S. recurrentis_ is by longitudinal and transverse
division (including so-called “incurvation”), and the organism forms
small, ovoid bodies (“coccoid” bodies) in the same way as _S. duttoni_.
_S. recurrentis_ is the cause of European relapsing fever, and a number
of possible varieties of it are associated with relapsing fevers in
other parts of the world. Such spirochætes only differ by biological
reactions, such as acquired immunity tests. They include:--
_S. rossii_, the agent of East African relapsing fever; _S. novyi_, the
agent of North American relapsing fever; _S. carteri_, the agent of
Indian relapsing fever; _S. berbera_, the agent of North African and
Egyptian relapsing fever.
OTHER HUMAN SPIROCHÆTES are:--
_S. schaudinni._ This organism, according to Prowazek, is the agent of
ulcus tropicum. It varies in length from 10 µ to 20 µ.
_S. aboriginalis_ has been found in cases of granuloma inguinale in
British New Guinea and Western Australia. It also occurs in dogs, and
may not be truly parasitic.
_S. vincenti._ This spirochæte is 12 µ to 25 µ in length, tapers
at both ends and has few coils. It has been associated with angina
vincenti. It often occurs in company with fusiform bacilli.
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