I. Friedmann et al., EPIDEMIC TYPHUS FEVER AND HEARING-LOSS - A HISTOLOGICAL STUDY (HALLPIKE COLLECTION OF TEMPORAL BONE SECTIONS), Journal of Laryngology and Otology, 107(4), 1993, pp. 275-283
Hearing loss as a frequent complication of louse-borne epidemic typhus
fever has been well documented in the reports of ENT specialists serv
ing in both the Allied and the German armies in the last war. The pres
ent paper describes the characteristic histopathological features as n
oted in sections of the temporal bones from five British soldiers who
died in 1944 of typhus fever during the last war in Eastern Asia. The
VIIIth nerve showed multiple 'typhus nodules' and there was extensive
interstitial neuritis of the VIIIth nerve and demyelination of the ner
ve fibres. There were also widely scattered aggregations of mononuclea
r cells in the inner ear. This unique study was based on the Hallpike
collection of temporal bone sections.