Evening star., 1932-11-29
TYPHUS RESEARCH
WORKER STRICKEN
STUDYING DISEASE
Dr.. Workman Third Member
of Laboratory Staff to
Contract Malady.
TAKEN TO HOSPITAL
IN SERIOUS CONDITION
Health Service Aide Expected to
Volunteer to Carry on Study
Of Virulent Fleas.

DR.. william G. Workman, 40l
Twenty-third street, was reported today
seriously i'll of typhus fever in Naval
disease carrying rat fleas at the Ma
tional Institute of Health.
DIR. Workman is the third of the
laboratory staff to become a victim of
this dreaded disease in the course of
experiments which, during the last two
years, have brought about some Of the
most noteworthy medical discoveries of
this generation. He was the assistant
to DR.. Rolla E. Dyer, assistant director
Of the institute, who last month was. at
the point of death with the disease
after being infected with one Of the
especially virulent fleas with which he
was working in an effort to produce a
vaccine.
Experiments Continued.
After few days in a semi-delirium
DR.. Dyer's mind cleared ami he recog-
nized that his own misfortune might
be fortuitous in clearing up one OBJ
scure point in the etiology of the dis
ease. He at once sent for Dr. Workman
and ordered that some uninfected fleas
be placed on his body. After that DR..
workman visited his chief daily to OBJ
serve the progress of the experiment.
Meanwhile he continued DR.. Dyer's ex-
periments in the laboratory. 1t was
during this period. it is believed, that
he, himself, received the infection re-
sulting in his present illness.
The indications are, it was said at
the Public Health Service today, that
DR.. Workman's misfortune may make
1t possible to establish another link in
the chain. The experiments with DR..
Dyer failed to establish anything and 1t
Is probable that Workman will volun-
teer TO undergo the same experience.
The disease Is the endemic typhus,"
which Is confined to the United States,
and which differs slightly from the So
called Jail fever" Of the Old World.
which Is known to be spread by human
body lice. While the Old World form
is prevalent in crowded and insanitary
environments, such as slums and army
camps, the American form tended to
occur in spotlessly sanitary homes,
where human lice werer-oGt of the
question.
Carried by Rat Fleas.
After ng-continued investigation,
DR.. Dyer established two years ago that
the endemic typhus was carried by rat
feas. This was demonstrated by ex-
periments on guinea pigs. The same
effects were produced by the fieas as by
tnoculations from human patients.
DR.. Dyer and Dr. Workman then went
to work to produce protective vaccine,
working on the same principle as had
been followed successfully in preventing
the somewhat similar Rocky Mountain
spotted fever. This vaccine was to be
made from the ground-up bodies of in
fected fieas. Some success was achieved
with guinea pigs just before Dr. Dyer
became i'll, but the vaccine still was far
from the stage where 1t could be uscd
with human beings.
A weak link in the chain is the point
as to whether q rat flea actually can
acquire the disease by biting a human
victim and then transmit it to another.
or to an experimental animal. This was
the point which DR. Workman tried to
clear up last month with Indifferent
success, with DR.. Dyer, on his sickbed,
volunteering to be bitten Another
point to be cleared up was whether this
disease might not also be transmitted by
the body flea, like its old world relative.
A thorough search was made by Pub
lice Health Service officers through the
flop houses of Baltimore and PhiladeI-
phia in an effort to find some human
feas to place on DR.. Dyer's BODY. At
this season none we're to be found.
Workman. it is likely, will undergo the
same process with his chief changing
places with him as the conductor of the
experiment.
Able to Visit Laboratory
DR.. Dyer is sufficiently recovered to
visit his laboratory for a short time
every day, but still is very weak. His
illness established in the minds OF Pub
lie Health Service officers the convic-
tion that endemic typhus is a much
more serious condition than had been
thought
Although extreme precautions are
used in handling the virus-carrying
fieas, three experimenters have been in
fected within year The first was DR..
w. z. Cedar, who contracted the dis
ease last Winter and now is thoroughly
recovered
Dr.. Workman came TO the National
Institute of Health in 1881 after a
period Of Public Health Service train
Ing at the Marine Hospital in Balti-
more. He is native of Beallville, Ohio,
and is a graduate of Wooster College
and the Ohio State Medical College. He
Is married and has one child.