Autoemotherapy in Tracoma: The Therapy of the 30s that stimulated the Immunitarian system

I just got the photocopy of a book from the 1930s in which the tracoma was treated with autohemotherapy, and the thing made me think a lot, especially thinking about how many doctors today liquidate this practice as a dangerous nonsense.

When I read Dr. Antonio De Logu’s work on self-hemotherapy and self-herotherapy in the treatment of tracoma I was impressed not only by the clinical aspects but also by the scientific courage of an age in which antibiotics did not exist yet and the doctor had to rely on the physiological understanding of the organism and its ability to react, that text published in 1933 represents an extraordinary testimony of reasoned, observative and deeply clinical medicine.

Tracoma was then a devastating disease, a chronic keratoconjunctivitis which slowly led to the scarring of the conjunctivism, to the palpebral deformation, to the corneal opacization and finally to the loss of sight, mainly affected the poorest classes, spread easily in overcrowded environments and became a social problem before even health, the local therapies of silver as temporary nitrate

In this context, the idea of autohemotherapy was born, a simple method but with a precise logic, it took a bit of blood from the patient and reinjected it into the muscle to stimulate a reaction of the organism, it was not a random gesture but a way to "wake" the natural defenses, the reinjected blood worked as a stimulus that pushed the body to act and strengthen the general response

Autoserotherapy was a slightly different version, the serum separated from the blood, i.e. the liquid part, and it was only re-injected, the goal was to obtain a more controlled and less irritating reaction at the injection point but still able to activate the whole organism, in both cases the underlying idea was the same, not directly affect the microbo but strengthen the body so that it was him to react better.

By reading the clinical cases described by De Logu we can see an interesting aspect, the best results were seen when the tracoma had not yet arrived at the scar stage, it was observed less reddening of the conjunctivis, a decrease in follicles and an improvement of symptoms such as sensitivity to light and tearing, there was still no mention of scientific studies as we intend them today but of direct experiences on patients, careful observation and continuous comparison.

What strikes me about this work is not only the fact that there were improvements but the idea behind it, that the body has its own resources that can be stimulated, that blood is not only a liquid that carries substances but also a means capable of activate biological responses, and that inflammation, if guided in the right way, can become part of the healing process.

Today we know that tracoma is caused by Chlamydia trachomatis and that systemic antibiotic therapy has revolutionized prognosis, yet we cannot superficially liquidate these attempts of the past, because they represent the roots of modern immunomodulation, many contemporary strategies in the oncological and immunological sphere are based precisely on the idea of reactivating or modulating the response of the host.

In the early 1900s, autohemotherapy and self-syerotherapy were attempts in line with the knowledge of that time, they were not random practices but the result of a careful study on how inflammation was working and how the body reacted to diseases.

When I read these texts I understand that medicine is not only technology and new drugs but also ability to understand the body as a whole, to see that a chronic disease does not only depend on a microbe but on a balance that has altered between the person and the environment in which he lives.

For this reason De Logu's work for me is not only a document of the past but a stimulus to look at medicine in a broader way, not to think only of the drug but of the overall response of the organism, and to remember that every epoch has sought with the means that he had to help the body heal, and it is precisely from this continuous search and reflect that the true progress of medicine arises.