Etiology of Acute Illness Among Workers Using Low-grade Stained Cotton

Abstract

The authors report results of a study of the etiology of an acute illness among industrial workers who work with low grade stained cotton. The etiological agent appears to be a Gram-negative, rod-shaped bacterium apparently belonging to Aerobacter. The toxic agent producing the clinical symptoms is a heat-stabile, endotoxin-like substance and was demonstrated in filtrates from saline extracts of stained cotton, in filtrates from broth cultures, of the "cotton bacterium" and in killed suspensions of this organism. Neutralizing antibodies could be produced by injn. of these filtrates into rabbits. The illness was produced in humans by inhalation of dust from normal cotton contaminated by the "cotton bacterium" and its culture filtrates, dust from stained cotton containing the "cotton bacterium," and from inhalation of a fine mist of a sterile filtrate from such cultures. Severity of the clinical symptoms was dependent on the presence and conc. of the organism or its products.