A STUDY OF THE CARRIER CONDITION ASSOCIATED WITH TYPE II PNEUMONIA IN A CAMP OF THE CIVILIAN CONSERVATION CORPS 1

Abstract

In Nov., 1935, several cases of lobar pnueumonia incited by type-II pneumococci developed in a veterans'' camp of the C. C. C. in New York State, following an epidemic of upper respiratory infection. 19% of the enrolled men were found to be harboring strains of type-II pneumococci. In the spring of 1936, a similar outbreak of upper respiratory infection occurred in another camp to which a number of the men who were still found to be carrying pneumococcus type II had been transferred, and 2 new carriers were discovered. Individual strains were all highly virulent for mice. However, no cases of pneumonia incited by pneumococcus type II developed. Type determinations were made of 108 strains of pneumococci other than type II. 21 types were classified. Strains of pneumococcus type I, V, VII and XIV, which frequently incite pneumonia, were not encountered. Protection tests were made of the sera of 22 men found to harbor type-II pneumococci in their throats either as patients or as healthy carriers, and, as a control, the sera of 10 men not connected with the camp were also tested. In certain instances, there semed to be a significant correlation between the protective activity of individual blood serum against type II and the existence of this type in the throat, and also between the protective activity against type I and a history of immunization in 1934 with Felton type-I and type-II soluble antigen.