The Weil-Felix test for the rickettsioses

Abstract

The so-called Weil-Felix reaction as a method of diagnosis in typhus fever has been widely accepted by German workers, especially on the Eastern fronts, where in the Balkans especially, cases of typhus fever have been numerous. World War I was responsible for some of the worst epidemics of typhus that the world has known. In this day and age everyone accepts unquestioningly the fact that the causative agent of epidemic typhus is Rickettsia prowazeki but in those days the candidate etiological agents were as numerous as candidate viruses have been in our days for the virus of infective hepatitis. When the Great War of 1914-1919 was over Weil devoted himself whole-heartedly to all aspects of typhus research; etiology, diagnosis and prophylaxis, whereas after World War II, Felix stressed the necessity of standardising the W-F test and his recommendations were published in the Bulletin of the World Health Organisation (1950).