Abstract
On December 5, 1940, Dr. Albert W. Van Sickle, Morristown Memorial Hospital, Morristown, New Jersey, kindly submitted for examination the blood serum of a 54-year-old wife of a poultry farmer, who had during the past 2 years lost about 500 chickens from some unknown disease. On November 23 she complained of severe headache, joint pains and grippy-like feelings; her temperature was 102°F, pulse 70 and respirations 20. She had severe chills at 4- to 5-hour intervals. On admission to the hospital with a temperature of 105°F, the X-ray examination on the 28th revealed an early pneumonitic consolidation within the right upper lobe without cough or sputum and a W.B.C. of 7,000. Throat cultures produced no pneumococci and despite sulfathiazole treatment the temperature remained a continua at 102 to 103°F. The serum specimens gave a strongly positive reaction in the complement fixation test for psittacosis in a dilution of 1 :32 on the 12th, >1:128 on the 41st and 155th days. A few flakes of mucus secured from the buccal cavity on the 32nd day of her illness and after her return from the hospital failed to infect mice. Convalescence was uneventful but slow.
An epidemiological investigation kindly undertaken by the Department of Health of the State of New Jersey conclusively excluded an exposure of the patient to psittacine or any other domesticated birds except chickens. Through the courtesy of Mr. H. R. Nicolas of the Department on January 6th, 1941, 3 chickens were obtained and sent in a frozen state to California. The autopsies revealed no gross lesions suggestive of psittacosis. Although the cadavers showed definite emaciation and anemia, organ emulsions of the spleen, liver and kidneys in pools and separately were inoculated intraperitoneally into mice.
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