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YAWS, MYCOPLASMA PNEUMONIAE AND COLD AGGLUTININS IN NEW GUINEANS
Author(s) -
Kariks J.
Publication year - 1971
Publication title -
medical journal of australia
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.904
H-Index - 131
eISSN - 1326-5377
pISSN - 0025-729X
DOI - 10.5694/j.1326-5377.1971.tb87446.x
Subject(s) - cold agglutinin , immunology , agglutinin , biology , mycoplasma pneumoniae , mycoplasma , microbiology and biotechnology , antibody , medicine , lectin , pneumonia
An investigation has been carried out upon 1,637 New Guinean serum samples to ascertain whether yaws and Mycoplasma pneumoniæ infections were in any way associated with the high incidence of asymptomatic cold agglutinins observed in New Guineans. The results show that cold agglutinins are frequently but not always present in people whose sera react with non‐treponemal and treponemal antigens. M. pneumoniæ infection appears to have a minor role in the cold agglutinin production. Ascaris lumbricoides infestation, owing to its ability to provoke an intensive lymphatic reaction in the Peyer's patches and in the mesenteric lymph nodes, and owing to its high incidence in New Guinea, could possibly be another cause for the cold agglutinin production.