Relapsing Fever

Relapsing Fever (Famine Fever), is an infectious disease, in which an attack of high fever occurs, usually lasting about seven days; the temperature then falls, and at or about the fourteenth day of the illness a relapse takes place, the temperature again becoming raised. There is sometimes a third relapse. The disease is closely associated with starvation, and conditions of overcrowding. It has manifested itself in many parts of the globe; it is rare in this country, but has committed considerable ravages in Ireland. A micro-organism, the Spirillum Obermeieri, has been detected in the blood of persons suffering from the disease. The mortality averages about 5 per cent.