The Virulence in the Guinea-pig of Tubercle Bacilli Isolated before Treatment from South Indian Patients with Pulmonary Tuberculosis: 2. Comparison with Virulence of Tubercle Bacilli from British Patients

Bhatia, A L and Csillag, Anna and Mitchison, D A and Selkon, J B and Somasundaram, P R and Subbaiah, T V (1961) The Virulence in the Guinea-pig of Tubercle Bacilli Isolated before Treatment from South Indian Patients with Pulmonary Tuberculosis: 2. Comparison with Virulence of Tubercle Bacilli from British Patients. Bulletin of the World Health Organization, 25 (3). pp. 313-322. ISSN 00429686

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Abstract

A series of studies has been undertaken by the Tuberculosis Chemotherapy Centre Madras, with the ultimate object of finding out whether differences in the virulence of the tubercle bacilli isolated from Indian tuberculous patients before the start of chemotherapy are related to the severity of the patients’ disease and to the subsequent response to treatment. This paper–the second in the series–presents the results of a comparative investigation of the virulence in the guinea-pig of tubercle bacilli obtained from Indian and from British tuberculous patients before treatment. In this investigation, which was carried out at the Centre and at the Microbiological Research Establishment, Porton, England, the virulence of the Indian and the British cultures was assessed by guinea-pig mortality, by the “ root-index of virulence ” ( base d on the post-mortem tuberculous disease score and the survival period of the animal), and by the results of spleen culture. The Indian cultures were found, on the average, to be less virulent and to show a wider range of virulence than the British cultures, both in the Porton and in the Madras series of experiments. A further indication of the heterogeneity of the Indian tubercle bacilli was provided by the results of tuberculin tests : whereas the British cultures appeared to be homogeneous in their ability to induce tuberculin allergy in the guinea-pig, the Indian cultures showed considerable variation in this respect.

Item Type: Article
Subjects: Tuberculosis > Operational Research
Divisions: Clinical Research
Depositing User: Dr. Rathinasabapati R
Date Deposited: 15 Jul 2013 05:01
Last Modified: 28 Sep 2018 10:26
URI: http://eprints.nirt.res.in/id/eprint/24

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