Behavioral effects of infectious diseases: Phlebotomus fever in man.

Abstract

The synthetic work technique was employed to assess the behavioral effects of a self-limiting viral infection, Phlebotomus (or Sandfly) fever. Average efficiency, as measured with the mean percentage of base-line performance, fell about 25% with one group of 8 experimental 5s (Behavioral Effects of Infectious Disease, Experimental Group 4; BEID-4E) and 18% with another (BEID-5E) during the febrile period of illness. These are not as great as the 25%-33% decrements in performance previously observed in more severe cases of bacterial infection with respiratory Pasteurella tularensis (Rabbit fever or tularemia). Individuals differed greatly in their behavioral reactions to infection, ranging from essentially no decrement to maximum decrements of about 14% (Sandfly fever) and 20% (tularemia) of base-line performance per degree rise in body temperature during the febrile period.