[Therapy and prophylaxis of recurrent erysipelas (author's transl)]

17 patients suffering from chronically recurrent erysipelas were treated through 10 days - every day - with 10 mega Na-penicillin G intravenously, before noon, and with 1.2 mega (900000 units clemizole penicillin G plus 300000 units Na-penicillin G) intramuscularly or 1 to 2 mega penicillin V acid orally, in the afternoon. Thereafter, these patients were to be injected through six months, in two week intervals, a repository penicillin (600000 units benzathine penicillin G, 300000 unmand in a divers manner. During the observation period from 1 7/12 to 2 8/12 years, 11 out of 17 patients remained without relapse. Frequency of recidivation significantly decreased in 3 patients; no improvement was achieved in the three last patients.

Outbreak of idiopathic erysipelas in a psychiatric hospital

In an outbreak of idiopathic erysipelas ten women patients, aged 42-74, in a long-stay unit of a psychiatric hospital were simultaneously affected. Group A streptococci M-type 1 were isolated from two isolated from two patients with erysipelas and 18 carriers, but subsequent serological tests for type-specific antibody, antistreptolysin O, and anti-deoxyribonuclease B showed that the infection had been widespread in the unit. Treatment with ampicillin proved ineffective and to prevent relapse it was substituted by a standard course of intramuscular penicillin. This seems to be the first epidemic of this type to be reported and certainly the first outbreak of idiopathic erysipelas to be investigated by modern serological techniques.

[Antibodies to type antigens of group A streptococcal cell walls in erysipelas patients]

The passive hemagglutination test was used to determine antibodies to type antigens of the cell wall of streptococcus group A in 167 patients suffering from erysipelas, from whom 488 sera were obtained. Antibodies were revealed in 97.2% of the sera. There was a definite relationship between the clinical form of the disease and the level of antibodies: their lowest level and the absence of elevation in the course of the disease was noted in continuous-relapsing form of erysipelas; the appearance of antibodies to the new types of streptococcus was usually noted in late relapses of the disease, which permitted to attribute their occurrence to infection by the new types of the microbes. In individual cases the appearance of antibodies to the new types of streptococcus was observed at the early relapses of erysipelas; this could be explained by the exacerbation of a focus of chronic (endogenous) infection in the skin in the absence of reinfection. Continuous prophylactic administration of bicillin-5 produced no depressive effect on the antibody level in patients with relapsing erysipelas.