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American Journal of Epidemiology Vol. 90, No. 4: 278-284
Copyright © 1969 by The Johns Hopkins University School of Hygiene and Public Health

research-article

ANTIBODIES TO TRACHOMA IN EYE SECRETIONS OF SAUDI ARAB CHILDREN1

DOROTHY E. MCCOMB and ROGER L. NICHOLS2

2Department of Microbiology, Harvard School of Public Health 665 Huntington Avenue, Boston, Mass. 02115

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McComb, D. E. and Nichols, R. L (Harvard Univ. School of Public Health, Boston, Mass. 02115). Antibodies to trachoma in eye secretions of Saudi Arab children. Amer. J. Epid., 1969, 90: 278–284.—Eye secretions from 81 Saudi Arab children were obtained on filter paper, eluted in buffered saline and tested by immunofluorescence for antibodies to trachoma. Thirty Caucasian children with normal eyes living in Saudi Arabia served as controls. Antibodies were not found in the controls. Fifty of 81 Arab children had antibodies to trachoma; the geometric mean titer was 1: 48. The titers varied signifkantly with ages. In these 81 children a high degree of correlation was found between the antibody test and established clinical and microbiological measures of trachoma activity as follows: Of those with active clinical trachoma, 40 of 45 (89%) had antibodies; of those who were inclusion positive, isolation positive or both, 44 of 50 (88%) had antibodies. Antibodies were not found in 21 children free of trachoma by clinical and microbiological tests. All of 13 eye secretions tested reacted with the homologous isolate, lymphogranuloma venereum and inclusion conjunctivitis strains; 8 of 13 reacted with meningopneumonitis; 6 of 13 reacted with psittacosis. Antibodies to trachoma in the conjunctival sac appear to be a specific reaction to the disease. The test for these antibodies may be useful in epidemiologic description of the disease. Broader questions of immunity to trachoma are raised by these findings.

antibodies; eye secretions; clinical trachoma; Saudi Arabian children

1From the Aramco Trachoma Program for Saudi Arabia, Medical Department, Arabian American Oil Company, Dhahran, Saudi Arabia and the Department of Microbiology, Harvard University School of Public Health, Boston, Mass.


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