The diagnostics and treatment of tropical diseasesStitt, E. R. (Edward Rhodes)
Science
The diagnostics and treatment of tropical diseases
Stitt, E. R. (Edward Rhodes)
Tropical medicine
In Utah most of the cases showed local lesions at the site of the
fly-bite and subsequent swelling and suppuration of adjoining lymph
glands. The local lesions were generally observed about the head or
on parts of the body not covered by the clothing. There is a rather
sudden onset with chilliness or rigors, generally associated with
dizziness, prostration and malaise. Headache is usually present
and there may be complaints of pains in the back and limbs. The
temperature rises rapidly and when first taken during the rigors may
reach 103° or 104°F. An irregular fever course follows for two or
three weeks. There is practically no apathy, thus differentiating
the mental state of typhoid fever or the marked clouding of the
consciousness of plague. At times we may have rhinitis and epistaxis.
Physical examination is almost invariably negative. The spleen is
not palpable. The pulse is rather rapid and the blood pressure
uninfluenced.
The white and differential counts vary but little from normal.
The main feature of the disease, aside from local lesions when
these are present, is prostration and this continues marked during
the several weeks or months of convalescence.
It is a disabling illness rather than a dangerous one though a fatal
case is recorded.
In the six laboratory infections above referred to, there were no
local lesions except in the case of one man who had had previously
an attack of the disease. In the second attack, two years after the
first one, there was noted a papule on one finger with subsequent
involvement of the epitrochlear and axillary glands. A guinea pig
inoculated with blood taken from the papule became infected and
showed the typical lesions of tularaemia.
There was no fever or malaise in this second attack, thus showing
a degree of immunity. In cases showing conjunctival ulcerations
with glandular involvement Wherry and Lamb obtained cultures of _B.
tularense_ from inoculated animals.
DIAGNOSIS
There is very little in the clinical picture, other than the local
lesions, to indicate a diagnosis.
Material from ulcers or glands should be inoculated into guinea
pigs or white mice. The organism is almost invariably absent
from the blood of human cases so that blood cultures or animal
inoculation from such blood are almost always negative.
Complement fixation and agglutination tests are the methods of
diagnosis to be relied on. In the Hygienic Laboratory an antigen
is prepared by washing off the 72 hour growth from egg yolk
medium with small amounts of saline. The suspension is heated for
30 minutes at 56°C. and then preserved by the addition of O.3%
tricresol. Such an antigen is used for each type of test.
PROGNOSIS
This disease is but rarely followed by death. It is however a most
incapacitating disease by reason of the three or four months of
convalescence during which time the strength and energy of the
patient are markedly affected.
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