Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-jkksz Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-26T06:58:45.988Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

An investigation of the family background of acute haemophilus infections of children

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 May 2009

D. C. Turk
D. C. Turk
Affiliation:
Bacteriology Department and Regional Public Health Laboratory, Radcliffe Infirmary, Oxford OX2 6HE
Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Summary

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

Nose and throat swabs, for culture of Haemophilus influenzae type b, and blood samples, for measurement of antibodies specific for that serotype, were collected from members of 28 families from which children had been admitted to hospital with acute H. influenzae type b infections (mainly meningitis or epiglottitis). The patients with meningitis were younger than those with epiglottitis and had more siblings, with a marked predominance of sisters. Investigations within a few days of admission of the affected children to hospital detected carriers of H. influenzae type b (19 altogether) in 13 of the 28 families, including 9 of the 13 families with 3 or more children. Members with raised antibody titres for H. influenzae type b (suggesting the presence of the organism for at least a few weeks) were found in 17 of the 25 families from which blood samples were obtained, including all 11 families with 3 or more children. Most of the patients probably acquired their infections from within their own families, and siblings under 11 years old were of predominant importance both as carriers and as potential sources of the patients' infections. Persistence of the organism within families for up to 6 months was demonstrated. Possible reasons for the difference in age-incidence between haemophilus meningitis and epiglottitis and for the occurrence of the former in babies with older sisters are suggested, and also a possible connexion between the results of this survey and the likely value of immunization against H. influenzae type b.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Hygiene , Volume 75 , Issue 2 , October 1975 , pp. 315 - 332
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1975

References

REFERENCES

Addy, M. G., Ellis, P. D. M. & Turk, D. C. (1972). Haemophilias epiglottitis: nine recent cases in Oxford. British Medical Journal i, 40–2.Google Scholar
Alexander, H. E., Ellis, C. & Leidy, G. (1942). Treatment of type-specific H. influenzae infections in infancy and childhood. Journal of Pediatrics 20, 673–98.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Barrett, F. F., Taber, L. H., Morris, C. R., Stephenson, W. B., Clark, D. J. & Yow, M. D. (1972). A 12 year review of the antibiotic management of H. influenzae meningitis. Journal of Pediatrics 81, 370–7.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bass, J. W., Steele, R. W. & Wiebe, R. A. (1974). Acute epiglottitis: a surgical emergency. Journal of the American Medical Association 229, 671–5.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Baxter, J. D. (1967). Acute epiglottitis in children. Laryngoscope 77, 1358–67.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bennett, J. V., McCormick, J. B. & Feldman, R. A. (1974). H. influenzae meningitis. Pediatrics 53, 951–2.Google Scholar
Berenberg, W. & Kevy, S. (1958). Acute epiglottitis in childhood. New England Journal of Medicine 258, 870–4.Google Scholar
Bevan-Jones, H. & Miller, D. L. (1967). Bacterial meningitis 1962–63. Monthly Bulletin of the Ministry of Health and the Public Health Laboratory Service 26, 22–30.Google Scholar
Boisvert, P. L. (1948). Familial epidemiology of H. influenzae, type b, infections. American Journal of the Diseases of Children 75, 427.Google Scholar
Cartwright, K. & Turk, D. C. (1974). H. influenzae cellulitis. British Medical Journal ii, 225.Google Scholar
Dawson, B. & Zinnemann, K. (1952). Incidence and type distribution of capsulated H. influenzae strains. British Medical Journal i, 740–2.Google Scholar
Fothergill, L. D. & Wright, J. (1933). Influenzal meningitis: relation of age incidence to bactericidal power of blood against causal organism. Journal of Immunology 24, 273–84.Google Scholar
Good, P. G., Fousek, M. D., Grossman, M. F. & Boisvert, P. L. (1943). Study of familial spread of H. influenzae, type b. Yale Journal of Biology and Medicine 15, 913–18.Google Scholar
Johnson, R. D. & Fousek, M. D. (1943). A study of the spread of H. influenzae, type b. Journal of Bacteriology 45, 197.Google Scholar
Johnston, R. B., Anderson, P., Rosen, F. & Smith, D. H. (1973). Characterization of human antibody to polyribophosphate, the capsular antigen of H. influenzae type b. Clinical Immunology and Immunopathology 1, 234–40.Google Scholar
Johnstone, J. M. & Lawy, H. S. (1967). Acute epiglottitis in adults due to H. influenzae type b. Lancet ii, 134–6.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jones, H. M. (1970). Acute epiglottitis: a personal study over 20 years. Proceedings of the Royal Society of Medicine 63, 706–12.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jones, H. M. & Camps, F. E. (1957). Acute epiglottitis: supraglottitis. Practitioner 178, 223–9.Google Scholar
Koch, R. & Carson, M. J. (1955). Management of H. influenzae, type b meningitis. Journal of Pediatrics 46, 18–29.Google Scholar
Lindsay, J. W., Rice, E. C. & Selinger, M. A. (1940). Treatment of meningitis due to H. influenzae (Pfeiffer's bacillus). Journal of Pediatrics 17, 220–7.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McGowan, J. E., Klein, J. O., Bratton, L., Barnes, M. W. & Finland, M. (1974). Meningitis and bacteraemia due to H. influenzae: occurrence and mortality at Boston City Hospital in 12 selected years, 1935–72. Journal of Infectious Diseases 130, 119–24.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Masters, P. L., Brumfitt, W., Mendez, R. L. & Likar, M. (1958). Bacterial flora of the upper respiratory tract in Paddington families, 1952–4. British Medical Journal i, 1200–5.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Milko, D. A., Marshak, G. & Striker, T. W. (1974). Nasotracheal intubation in the treatment of acute epiglottitis. Pediatrics 53, 674–7.Google Scholar
Miller, I. A. & Turk, D. C. (1965). H. influenzae infection of a finger. British Medical Journal i, 1042.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mpairwe, Y. (1970). Observations on the nasopharyhgeal carriage of H. influenzae type b in children in Kampala, Uganda. Journal of Hygiene 68, 337–41.Google Scholar
Myerowitz, R. L., Gordon, R. E. & Robbins, J. B. (1973). Polysaccharides of the genus Bacillus cross-reactive with the capsular polysaccharides of D. pneumoniae type III, H. influenzae type b and N. meningitidis group A. Infection and Immunity 8, 896–900.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Norden, C. W., Melish, M., Overall, J. C. & Baum, J. (1972). Immunologic responses to H. influenzae meningitis. Journal of Pediatrics 80, 209–14.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Norden, C. W. & Michaels, R. (1973). Immunologic response in patients with epiglottitis caused by H. influenzae type b. Journal of Infectious Diseases 128, 777–80.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ounsted, C. (1950). H. influenzae meningitis: a possible ecological factor. Lancet i, 161–2.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ounsted, C. (1951). Ecology of H. influenzae meningitis. Lancet i, 800.Google Scholar
Ouyang, H. M. & Ting, T. T. (1957). H. influenzae meningitis. Chinese Medical Journal 75, 908–16.Google Scholar
Parke, J. C., Schneerson, R. & Robbins, J. C. (1972). The attack rate, age incidence, racial distribution and case fatality rate of H. influenzae type meningitis in Mecklenburg County, North Carolina. Journal of Pediatrics 50, 765–9.Google Scholar
Pittman, M. (1931). Variation and type specificity in the bacterial species H. influenzae. Journal of Experimental Medicine 53, 471–92.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rabe, E. F. (1948). Infectious croup III. H. influenzae type b croup. Pediatrics 2, 559–66.Google Scholar
Schneerson, R., Bradshaw, M., Whisnant, J. K., Myerowitz, R. L., Parke, J. C. & Robbins, J. C. (1972). An E. coli antigen cross-reactive with the capsular polysaccharide of H. influenzae type. Journal of Immunology 108, 1551–62.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sell, S. H. W. (1970). The clinical importance of H. influenzae infections in children. Pediatric Clinics of North America 17, 415–26.Google Scholar
Sell, S. H. W., Turner, D. J. & Felderspiel, C. F. (1973). Natural infections with H. influenzae in children. In Hemophilus influenzae (ed. Sell, S. H. W. and Carson, D. T.), chap. 1, pp. 3–12. Nashville, Tennessee: Vanderbilt University Press.Google Scholar
Shaw, E. B. & Beuyn, H. B. (1960). Streptomycin in therapy of H. influenzae meningitis. Journal of Pediatrics 56, 253–8.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sinclair, S. E. (1941). H. influenzae type b in acute laryngitis with bacteraemia. Journal of the American Medical Association 117, 170–3.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Smith, D. H., Ingram, D. L., Smith, A. L., Gilles, F. & Bresnan, M. J. (1973). Bacterial meningitis: a symposium. Pediatrics 52, 586–600.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Smith, D. H., Peter, G., Ingram, D. L., Harding, A. L. & Anderson, P. (1973). Responses of children immunized with the capsular polysaccharide of H. influenzae type b. Pediatrics 52, 637–44.Google Scholar
South, M. A. (1972). Lack of immune response to H. influenzae: immune paralysis or immaturity? Journal of Pediatrics 80, 348–50.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Thrupp, L. D., Leedom, J. M., Ivler, D., Wehrle, P. F., Brown, J. F., Mathies, A. W. & Poetnoy, B. (1964). H. influenzae meningitis: a controlled study of treatment with ampicillin. Postgraduate Medical Journal 40 (suppl.), 119–25.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Turk, D. C. (1962). Haemophilus influenzae in Jamaica. D.M. Dissertation, University of Oxford.Google Scholar
Turk, D. C. (1963). Nasopharyngeal carriage of H. influenzae. Journal of Hygiene 61, 247–56.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Turk, D. C. & Green, C. A. (1964). Measurement of antibodies reacting with capsular antigens of H. influenzae. Journal of Clinical Pathology 17, 294–6.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Turk, D. C. & Holdaway, M. D. (1968). Capsulated H. influenzae and bronchiectasis. Journal of Medical Microbiology 1, 79–88.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Turk, D. C. & May, J. R. (1967). Haemophilus influenzae: Its Clinical Importance. London: English Universities Press.Google Scholar
Turk, D. C. & Wynter, H. H. (1961). Meningitis in Jamaica. West Indian Medical Journal 10, 118–31.Google ScholarPubMed