HOME HELP FEEDBACK SUBSCRIPTIONS ARCHIVE SEARCH TABLE OF CONTENTS		QUICK SEARCH:   [advanced] Author: Keyword(s): Year:  Vol:  Page:

This Article Full Text (PDF) Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Similar articles in this journal Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Citing Articles Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Hertig, M. Search for Related Content PubMed Articles by Hertig, M.

Phlebotomus and Carrión's Disease

I. Introduction

The present studies on Phlebotomus and Carrión's disease were begun when the writer came to Peru as a member of the Harvard 1937 Expedition to Peru.² He returned to Lima at the end of 1937 to continue the work under the joint auspices of Harvard Medical School and the National Institute of Hygiene and Public Health, later becoming a member of the Institute's staff.³

Carrión's disease is widely known under the names of its two chief clinical forms, namely Oroya fever, a severe, usually fatal, anemia, and verruga peruana, or simply verruga, usually benign and characterized by a cutaneous eruption of hemangioma-like nodules. In Peru it is common to include both forms of the disease under the term la verruga. The disease is endemic in a narrow strip along the Pacific slope and in certain other parts of the Peruvian Andes between Latitudes 6 and 13 degrees South and at altitudes usually between 800 and 3000 meters.

² Organized by Dr. Richard P. Strong, Department of Tropical Medicine; other members: Dr. Henry Pinkerton, Department of Pathology, the writer and Dr. David Weinman, Department of Comparative Pathology, and Mr. Byron L. Bennett, Technical Assistant.

³ It is a pleasant duty to acknowledge the writer's great indebtedness to the many good friends and colleagues whose kindnesses and services have aided in carrying on the work: To Dr. Telémaco S. Battistini, Director of the National Institute of Hygiene and Public Health, Lima, and Dr. Ernest E. Tyzzer, Head of the Department of Comparative Pathology and Tropical Medicine, Harvard Medical School, and to the respective administrations of those institutions, for making possible the study of this problem, especial thanks being due to Dr. Battistini for his constant support and many real services in the course of the work; to Dr. Richard P. Strong and the writer's colleagues of the Harvard 1937 Expedition to Peru; to the writer's faithful and capable assistants in the Institute's Department of Medical Entomology, especially to Sr. Arístides Herrer, Sr. Alberto Cornejo, Sr. Wencelaos Maertens and Sr. Máximo Puertas. The writer wishes to express his grateful appreciation of the personal kindnesses and generous cooperation of Mr. G. W. Morkill, General Manager of the Central Railway of Peru, who, in addition to furnishing transportation for personnel and material, placed at our disposal a screened railway coach which has served as headquarters and laboratory in the field. Sincere thanks are also due to the many medical men of Lima who have permitted access to patients in their hospital wards and have furnished friendly cooperation in other ways.