Vibrio fetus infection in man: a serological test.

Antigen preparations derived from a typical human strain of Vibrio fetus were employed in four tests. Of these, the indirect bacterial hemagglutination test proved most sensitive. By this test, antibodies titering 320 to 3,200 were found in five of eight patients with confirmed infections. Two patients without antibodies were on antimetabolites. Antigenic relationship with other compounds, and in particular with Brucella organisms, was not observed. No sero-reactors were found among 184 apparently healthy young men; of 401 unselected hospital patients, four had low sero-titers.