A study of mycobacteria isolated from cervical lymph glands of African patients in Kenya.

Tuberculosis of the cervical lymph glands is common among Africans, but little is known at present about the causal type of mycobacterium. A study was therefore made in 1958, jointly by WHO and the Kenya Medical Department, to isolate and type mycobacteria from specimens of cervical lymph glands from African patients. From 57 such specimens, collected throughout Kenya and sent to the Tuberculosis Research Institute in Prague for bacteriological and histological examination, 41 strains-all typed as Myco. tuberculosis var. hominis-were isolated, studied in subculture, and tested for drug sensitivity and animal pathogenicity.The cultural, pathogenic, biochemical, and other characteristics of these strains show that mycobacteria isolated from tuberculous cervical lymph glands of Africans essentially resemble those similarly isolated from Europeans, but that all of them were of the human type. No bovine or atypical strains were isolated. The importance of investigating the chest condition of Africans suspected of having tuberculous cervical lymph glands is demonstrated by the high incidence of chest lesions revealed on radiological examination of such persons.This report describes in detail the various methods employed in the study for making cultures, drug sensitivity tests, and histological examinations; the characteristics of the mycobacterial strains isolated; and the results of the bacteriological, clinical, histological, and radiological examinations performed.