The immunity reactions of the serum in gonococcal infections

Abstract

The first published observation of clinical value on this subject was as long ago as 1906, when Mueller and Oppenheim (1), followed by Buck (2), described successful demonstrations of the fixation of complement in gonococcal infections. Since this date a number of workers have made contributions which have placed the study of the serum these infections on a sound basis, yet there exists uncertainty on several important points, and in Britain and to the greater extent in Australie, this field of work has been little exploited.

The laboratory test which forms the bulk of the present enquiry 1s that which is the most important of the immunity reactions in gonococcal infections, the Complement Fixation test, referred to hereafter as the C.F. test.

Its clinical recognition has been rather slow. This has been due in part to the uncertain results often obtained owing to the difficulties of a delicate and relatively unstandardised technique. Perhaps, too, even the Medical Profession may not have realised that gonorrhoea is not always merely a very localised infection, but frequently presents features of what is a systemic invasion. For a serum test to be of value it is first nécessary that the successful overthrow of the infection in question should evoke the general immunity mechanism of the body. This aspect of the lesser but scarcely less serious of the Venereal Diseases has perhaps not received as wide a recognition as might be.