BACTERIOLOGICAL, IMMUNOLOGICAL AND VIRAL STUDIES ON RECTAL MUCUS IN ENTERIC INFECTIONS (SHIGELLOSIS, SALMONELLOSIS, PATHOGENIC COLI INFECTIONS AND VIRAL ENTERIC INFECTIONS).

It was clarified that the antibody titers of serum and rectal mucus against their own causative agents in bacterial acute gastroenteritis patients were lower than those in Shigellosis. All of the agglutinin titers against live antigen, Latex antigen, O-antigen and H-antigen of these entero-bacilli were mostly low except few cases. In sera of 27 cases of typhoid fever Latex agglutinin titers were generally higher than routine Widal agglutinin titers against Vi-antigen and somatic antigen of Salmonella typhi. Furthermore, Latex Widal test offers the advantage of yielding exact, readable results within 2 hours, while in routine Widal test the reading can be made only after 24 hours. From these reasons it was confirmed that Latex Widal test is worthy to select for sero-diagnosis of Salmonellosis instead of routine Widal test. Comparative study of Shigella excretion between rectal swab culture and quantitative culture titer of rectal mucus showed that Shigella isolation might fail by using fecal specimens or rectal swab when mucus part is few in feces or rectal cavity. Author