JAUNDICE OCCURRING ONE TO FOUR MONTHS AFTER TRANSFUSION OF BLOOD OR PLASMA

Abstract

The purpose of this communication is to report 7 cases of jaundice which occurred one to four months after transfusions of whole blood or plasma and to suggest that these illnesses were probably caused by the transfusions. There are on record a number of instances in which inoculation of groups of people with human plasma, serum or lymph has resulted in outbreaks of an illness resembling catarrhal jaundice. A distinctive feature of these cases has been a long incubation period, varying between four and thirty weeks, the majority being between eight and eighteen weeks. The first large outbreak occurred in 1883-1884 among workers in a Bremen shipyard, who were vaccinated with human lymph derived from cases of vaccinia. From one to seven months later 191 of 1,289 persons became jaundiced, while 500 other workers in the same shipyard, vaccinated with a different lot of lymph, remained free of the disease.