The Reaction to Flea Bites: Anaphylaxis and Louse Infestation

Abstract

I WAS much interested in Prof. Boycott's letter (NATURE, October 23, p. 591) dealing with anaphylaxis consequent upon the bites of fleas, as I have in mind an interesting case illustrating the same phenomenon after infestation by lice. The case came under my notice in 1918 whilst I was serving as entomologist with the American Red Cross Trench Fever Commission in France under Prof. (then Major) Richard P. Strong, of Harvard University, U.S.A. During the experimentation a number of volunteer subjects were injected intravenously with filtered extract of louse excrement from insects which had fed upon trench fever cases. One such volunteer was inoculated at 3.25 P.M., and, to quote, “Z. showed very marked anaphylactic phenomena at 3.40 P.M., severe œdema of the face, and very marked general urticaria and much discomfort. The symptoms slowly subsided. Z. had previously been used for the feeding of normal lice from May 31 to June 10. During this period over one hundred lice were fed upon him twice daily. His case illustrates a very unusual form of anaphylaxis” (“Trench Fever,” Oxford University Press, 1918, p. 278).