Epidemic typhus fever and hearing loss: a histological study (Hallpike collection of temporal bone sections)

Hearing loss as a frequent complication of louse-borne epidemic typhus fever has been well documented in the reports of ENT specialists serving in both the Allied and the German armies in the last war. The present paper describes the characteristic histopathological features as noted in sections of the temporal bones from five British soldiers who died in 1944 of typhus fever during the last war in Eastern Asia. The VIIIth nerve showed multiple 'typhus nodules' and there was extensive interstitial neuritis of the VIIIth nerve and demyelination of the nerve fibres. There were also widely scattered aggregations of mononuclear cells in the inner ear. This unique study was based on the Hallpike collection of temporal bone sections.