RELATION OF HOMOLOGOUS SERUM HEPATITIS TO PROPHYLACTIC INJECTION OF HUMAN BLOOD FRACTIONS A Study of 13,755 Cases with Injections

THE RECOGNITION of homologous serum hepatitis as a separate entity focused the attention of the members of the medical profession on the causal relation which exists between this disease and the administration of human blood and plasma. Reports have appeared sporadically in the medical literature of patients in whom hepatitis had developed after their inoculation with some form of human plasma. Hirsch,1in 1885, described an outbreak of jaundice in a Bremen shipyard among 1,289 workers vaccinated with glycerinated human lymph. Jaundice developed in 191 adults after an incubation period of several weeks or months. In two other groups, of 87 and 500 adults respectively, inoculated with vaccine from a different batch jaundice did not develop. In 1938. Propert2reported on a series of seven children to whom 4.5 cc. of measles immune serum (human) was given subcutaneously. Three months later, all seven became jaundiced, and three died.