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Samuel Vaisrub, MD

JAMA. 1980;244(12):1362.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text PDF and any section headings.

Equipped with the newer radioisotopic dating devices, geologists, archeologists, and anthropologists often return to old excavation sites to reassess with greater accuracy previous dating estimates based on less sophisticated methods. Unfortunately, until recently medical epidemiologists have not had the same ready access to relics of old epidemics to reassess previous diagnosis. Unlike excavations, diseases are evanescent.

Still, impermanent as an epidemic disease may be, it can be made to leave at least one long-lasting source for future investigation. Serum of infected persons can be stored for future studies with more advanced techniques. For instance, examination of serum obtained in 1965 during a minor outbreak of pneumonia in St Elizabeth Hospital in Washington, DC, disclosed 14 years later¹ the presence of live Legionella pneumophila, as well as that of antibodies to this organism. Not only did the isolation of the organism in embryonated eggs and the demonstration of its antibodies . . . [Full Text PDF of this Article]

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