STUDY OF ALLEGED LEPROSY BACILLUS STRAIN HL-75

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  • 1 January 1977
    • journal article
    • research article
    • Vol. 45  (2) , 101-106
Abstract
Subcultures of strain HI-75 of Skinsnes'' leprosy bacillus received in Antwerp, Belgium and London, England were studied bacteriologically and compared. Both contained moderately large acid-fast bacilli readily subcultured and maintained on ordinary mycobacteriologic media. These organisms were a variety of Mycobacterium marianum (syn. scrofulaceum) and were considered likely to be a laboratory contaminant. The earlier subculture studied also contained numbers of a much smaller mycobacterium (of a similar size to M. leprae) which appeared dead and did not grow on the ordinary media. Skin tests of patients and immunodiffusion analyses performed with extracts of the earlier subculture failed to demonstrate the presence of the specific antigens of leprosy bacilli. Similar studies on other cultures of Skinsnes'' bacillus must be performed to confirm or refute its identity as M. leprae.

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