POLIOMYELITIS VIRUS IN HUMAN STOOLS

Abstract

More than twenty-five years ago Kling, Pettersson and Wernstedt¹in Sweden were successful in isolating the virus of poliomyelitis from the human intestinal tract. They found it in several active cases of the disease and in convalescence. This result was soon repeated in a single fatal case by Kling and Levaditi,²and in this country another single instance of its recovery during convalescence was described by Sawyer³in 1915. During subsequent years no one seems to have been able to repeat this work until 1937, when Harmon⁴made brief mention of five successful attempts in which the virus was obtained from the rectal washings of four patients. Kramer⁵has stated that he also has succeeded with similar material. The present report records our experiences in testing material from the intestinal tract and nasopharynx during a small epidemic of poliomyelitis which occurred in 1937. In it