Gilliam:
The “Gilliam” (pronounced “Gillum”) strain (ATCC VR-312) is purported to originate from the blood of Lt. Col. (Dr.) Alexander G. Gilliam, who was one of seven scrub typhus patients being treated in early 1944. Dr. Gilliam was a Senior Surgeon, a trained epidemiologist in the U.S. Public Health Service, and a member of the U.S. Typhus Commission. He was deployed to the Assam-Burma border late in 1943, became infected (December, 1943) and was admitted to the 20th General Hospital, Marghuerita, (Indian) Assam on 5 January 1944 nearly dying of the disease.
The isolate was made from either gerbil (see Mackie, 1946) or mouse inoculation of the patient’s blood and was transported to the National Institutes of Health (NIH), Bethesda, MD in March, 1944 where it was passaged in embryonated hen eggs. (as illustrated in a photo of incubator at the NIH appearing in Life Magazine).
This strain was transferred from NIH to Army Medical Service Graduate School (later the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research) in 1946, provided by Dr. N.H. Topping of the NIH.
The relatively low virulence of Gilliam in mice following multiple passages prompted some to suggest the strain as a potential vaccine candidate. However, the organism remained quite virulent for humans.
This is exemplified by an anecdote provided by Dr. Charles Wisseman, Jr., a preeminent wartime (WWII) rickettsiologist and professor at the University of Maryland. In a personal discussion witnessed by Daryl Kelly, Wisseman underscored the virulence of the Gilliam strain in humans. Wisseman commented during an open forum of a meeting of the American Society for Rickettsiology in which the strain was being discussed as a potential vaccine candidate. He stated that it might not kill mice but that “I knew Gilliam and it damned near killed him.”
Some information about the history of the Gilliam isolate and Lt. Col. (Dr.) Alexander G. Gilliam has been provided by Laura Gilliam (daughter) and Alexander G. Gilliam Jr. (son). Parts of this have been recorded (on March 2, 2013) and are available in a dialogue between George Lewis and Daryl Kelly with Laura Gilliam (Part 1) and Alexander Gilliam Jr. (Part 2).
references:
Bengston IA. Apparent Serological heterogeneity among strains of tsutsugamushi disease (scrub typhus). Pub Health Reports. 1945; 60: 1483-1488.
Bennett BL, Smadel JE, Gauld RL. Studies on scrub typhus (tsutsugamushi disease ) IV Heterogeneity of strains of R. tsutsugamushi as demonstrated by cross-neutralization tests. J Immunol. 1949; 62: 453-461.
Recorded Interview with Alexander G. Gilliam, Jr.
Recorded Interview with Laura Gilliam.
Jones, Walter S. Chinese liason detail, In: Stone JH (ed.) . Crisis Fleeting: Original reports on military medicine in India, and Burma in the Second World War. Office of the Surgeon General, Department of the Army, Washington, D.C. 1969.
Mackie TT. 1946. Observations on tsutsugamushi disease (scrub typhus) in Assam and Burma. Trans Roy Soc Trop Med Hyg 40:15-56.
Tropical Diseases; Life Magazine, May 1, 1944. (see attached pdf). Life tropical diseases