An unusual Neisseria isolated from conjunctival cultures in rural Egypt.

Seven isolates of an unusual Neisseria sp. were obtained from eye cultures of children in two rural Egyptian villages. These Neisseria utilized only glucose, they exhibited a positive reaction when tested with antisera to crude antigen from Neisseria meningitidis and N. gonorrhoeae, and they did not react with the fluorescent antibody tests for N. gonorrhoeae or with the monoclonal antibodies used to serotype gonococci. The Egyptian isolates had colony morphology more typical of meningococci than gonococci and showed opaque and transparent colony variants. On SDS-PAGE, the major outer-membrane proteins had different patterns than those noted for comparable proteins of meningococci and gonococci; heat-modifiable outer-membrane proteins were present. Four of the six isolates examined had cryptic plasmids of 2.8 megadaltons, which were slightly larger than the cryptic plasmid of N. gonorrhoeae. These plasmids were homologous to the gonococcal cryptic plasmid, but had different restriction enzyme fragment patterns. The DNA from the Egyptian isolates, like DNA from N. meningitidis but unlike DNA from N. gonorrhoeae, could be cut with the restriction enzyme HaeIII. The frequency of transformation into a temperature-sensitive mutant of N. gonorrhoeae was 0.2 for the Egyptian isolates and 0.1 for N. meningitidis, a frequency that was 5-10-fold lower than that for the N. gonorrhoeae control isolates. Whole-cell DNA from the Egyptian isolates showed 68%-73% homology with N. gonorrhoeae and 57%-63% with N. meningitidis. On the basis of our observations, the Egyptian isolates are distinct from N. meningitidis and may represent a variant of N. gonorrhoeae. We suggest that the isolates be called Neisseria gonorrhoeae ssp. kochii.

Differentiation of Haemophilus aegyptius and Haemophilus influenzae.

This study aimed at clarifying the relationship of Haemophilus aegyptius and Haemophilus influenzae isolated from acute conjunctivitis in Egypt. Twenty-nine freshly isolated strains selected from a large clinical material were examined for morphological and growth characteristics, biochemical properties and susceptibility to selected antibiotics. H. aegyptius strains were clearly differentiated from strains of H. influenzae by their inability to grow on tryptic soy agar containing X + V factors, by their susceptibility to trooleandomycin, by a distinct bacillary morphology, and, in part, by not fermenting xylose. The results confirm that H. aegyptius is distinct from H. influenzae and provides reproducible means of differentiating the two species.

The skin window test in rhinoscleroma.

The skin window test was applied to evaluate the state of immunity in patients with rhinoscleroma. The use of the patient's own Klebsiella micro-organisms as antigen led to a negligible change in the percentage of lymphoblasts, whereas the use of foreign Klebsiella micro-organisms as antigen resulted in a pronounced change. This finding indicates an impaired cellular immune response. Application of Klebsiella microorganisms as antigen to normal subjects led to a comparatively high percentage of lymphoblastic transformation. This finding suggests the possible use of a standard Klebsiella antigen as a vaccine. The possible use of the skin window test to identify people with deficient T lymphocyte function is discussed as well as its use in monitoring the efficacy of such a vaccine in influencing the cellular immune response.