Studies on the Serologic Diagnosis of Murine Typhus and Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever

Abstract

A study was made of the serological diagnosis of human infections with murine typhus and RMSF by means of the CF, ESS, and Weil-Felix tests.The differences in the titers of CF antigens as determined with sera taken early and late in the course of guinea pig infections were observed more distinctly in human infection.The sera of 35 patients thought to have murine typhus or RMSF were studied by various tests and found positive by at least one of the procedures. All 35 were positive by the CF test using method 1 antigen in increased amounts, 31 were positive by the ESS test, 16 in the CF test with increased amounts of commercial antigen, 16 with method 1 antigen in the conventional amount (2 units), and 9 with the commercial antigen in the conventional amount. Thirteen cases were positive by the Weil-Felix test.