Medicine: Undulant Fever

During the Crimean War, thousands of British soldiers quartered in the Mediterranean area were disabled by Malta fever. In 1886 Major General Sir David Bruce of the British Army Medical Corps discovered the guilty germ. In 1897 Bernhard L. F. Bang, a Danish veterinarian, discovered the germ which caused contagious abortion in cattle. In 1918 Bacteriologist Alice Catherine Evans of the U. S. Public Health Service showed that these two germs were closely related, and it was later proved that the disease originates in cattle, goats and swine, and is transmitted to man. Malta fever and Brucellosis are commonly known in the U. S. as undulant fever. First reported U. S. epidemic occurred in Phoenix, Ariz, in 1922, and the number of cases has steadily in creased. Last week the U. S. Public Health Service announced that 1938 promises to be a peak year for undulant fever, with almost 2,000 cases reported to date, twice as many as in the same period of 1937. Hardest hit is the southwest cattle region.

Man contracts undulant fever by handling infected animals, drinking unpasteurized milk. In its mild form the disease resembles influenza; severe cases are so similar to typhoid fever, tuberculosis, malaria or rheumatism, that they are often diagnosed incorrectly. A patient becomes constipated, irritable, suffers from severe sweats or headaches. Most distinguishing feature of the disease is a “tidal fever,” which slowly advances during the fore noon, sweeps over the patient with fullest intensity from two to five in the afternoon, gradually recedes as evening draws on. Average course of the fever is six weeks, but it may disappear for several monthS, suddenly return, so that the average duration of the disease is reckoned at three to four months. Fatalities are few. The main aftereffect is weakening of the heart. Whether undulant fever causes abortion in humans is not yet known, but it does temporarily affect the genital tract.

Treatment is not standardized, varies according to the symptoms. For loss of appetite, Vitamin B may be prescribed; for rheumatic pains, artificial fever. Injection of typhoid-paratyphoid vaccine often stimulates the human body to produce antibodies which fight the disease. Recently, sulfanilamide has also proved of value.