Published online by Cambridge University Press: 15 May 2009
1. Various workers in different countries claim that in the sera of trachoma patients a positive Weil-Felix reaction is found and regard this as evidence that the casual agent of trachoma is a Rickettsia.
2. The examination of 200 sera from trachoma patients in the Sudan has failed to reveal any significant differences with regard to the Weil-Felix reaction between them and twenty-two sera from non-trachomatous controls, or 1000 sera taken, without reference to trachoma, from a large and representative section of the population.
3. Clinical and serological evidence suggest that typhus is absent from the Sudan. For this reason the interpretation of results is less liable to confusion in the Sudan than in countries where positive Weil-Felix reactions may occur in a varying proportion of the population due to typhus infections.