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An outbreak of encephalomeningomyelitis in Ehime·Syuso area from April to June 1956 was clinico-virologically investigated with the materials obtained from 28 hospitalized cases and their healthy visiting relatives. The major rise in polio type I antibody titer and the positive isolation of 4 strains of type I indicate the epidemy in this area to be the polio type 1. Three undeterminable cytopathogenic agents were concomitantly obtained in the HeLa cultures. The style of this episode was duly compared with the documents already reported.

Lymphocyte activation by streptolysin O (SLO) and factors in the plasma which inhibit the response to SLO were examined in 19 patients with mucocutaneous lymphnode syndrome (MCLS), 54 age-matched (6 months-6 years) normal children, 41 normal children older than 6 years and 10 normal adults. In normal children younger than 6 years, the response to SLO was weak and in many cases no response was seen. On the other hand, in the patients with MCLS, the response of lymphocytes to SLO was high and comparable to the response in adults and children older than 6 years. The DNA synthesis of lymphocytes stimulated by SLO was inhibited almost completely by autologous or allogeneic plasma of many of the normal children and adults. The plasma of patients with MCLS did not inhibit, but rather enhanced the response to SLO. These results suggest that the increased response of lymphocytes to SLO and the lack of plasma inhibitory factors in patients with MCLS may be due to the immune response to the pathogen of MCLS, as yet undiscovered.