Endemic Balkan nephropathy, a slow virus disease?

ABSTRACT

Serum samples from patients with endemic Balkan nephropathy (EBN) were inoculated intraperitoneally to four species of laboratory animals. It was only in the guinea pig that a serially transmissible experimental disease occurred, after a long incubation period. The morphopathological features in the guinea pig were similar to those encountered in the terminal phase of human EBN. The hypothesis that EBN might be a slow virus disease is discussed.