TRICHOMONAS VAGINALIS: TRANSMISSION 



record of the case. Katsunuma ( 1924) describes T. vagin- 

 alis in the urine of a Japanese boy only 3 years old. No 

 trichomonads were present in the feces and the urinary 

 tract was apparently normal. The flagellates were 

 thought to be located in the terminal portion of the 

 ureter, and the boy to have been infected by his mother 

 or some other woman attendant. Finally, Dastider 

 (1925) during the routine examination of fresh urine 

 from about 1000 persons found trichomonads in that of 

 three men and one woman. In all four the urine was acid 

 and that of the three men contained pus cells ; in two of 

 the latter the flagellates and pus cells disappeared at the 

 same time which indicates some relation between the 

 trichomonads and the pathological condition present. 



Trichomonads of vagina, mouth and intestine. Certain 

 investigators believe that the trichomonads that occur in 

 the vagina, mouth and intestine of man all belong to one 

 species. Thus both Lynch (1922a) and Wenyon (1926) 

 failed to find distinctive differences when specimens from 

 these habitats were grown in culture and compared. It 

 has been suggested that vaginal infections are due to con- 

 tamination with specimens from the intestine. The ab- 

 sence of intestinal trichomonads in certain reported cases 

 of vaginal infections is opposed to this theory, but it is 

 not always an easy matter to detect an intestinal infection 

 with Trichomonas. 



Methods of infection. How T. vaginalis reaches the 

 vagina is uncertain. Specimens from the vagina may 

 easily gain access to the urinogenital tract of men during 

 coitus. The vagina may become infected during coitus 

 but this has still to be proved. Contamination with speci- 



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