The role of stress in immunological events

Leprosy Mailing List – March 25^th, 2011 

Ref:   The role of stress in immunological events

From: Dr. Srinivasan, Chennai, India

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Dear Salvatore,

This in relation to the discussion on stress precipitating ENL.

It was well-known in olden days that a variety of stresses could and often did induce the onset of an attack of ENL.  The stress may be immunologically induced as after small pox vaccination, concomitant infection like urinary infection or it may even be parasite-induced as after micro-filarial flooding of the blood stream.

Dr Ramanujam used to quote the instance of a patient who would get an attack of ENL every time he got a letter from home as his relatives were taking advantage of his extended stay in the leprosy sanatorium to illegally acquire his landed property.

Regards,

H. Srinivasan
(Retired surgeon)
25 first Seaward Road,
Chennai 600 041
South India