[Cat-scratch disease or benign inoculation lymphoreticulosis. A continuous quest for the etiological agent].

This infection usually results from transmission to humans by the scratch of a cat, but may also follow spine stings or cuts from fresh bones of various animals, this explaining the ubiquity of the causative agent and its resistance to various physical agents. The primary lesion develops in the skin at the inoculation site, to be followed by the appearance of one or several satellite adenopathies, of regional distribution and evolving towards suppuration. Apart from some rare nervous manifestations the prognosis is usually good, but regression of the adenopathy is a slow process. Histology shows tumefaction of massed reticular cells with central necrosis, leucocyte diapedesis and ultimate abscess formation. Diagnosis is by evidence of allergy to a specific antigen formed of the pus from infected glands after sterilization. The responsibility of a gram-positive bacterium of the genus Rothia has just been demonstrated.