The strain was isolated by Baermann in 1924 from theblood of a patient in Sumatra, Indonesia (van Thiel, 1948). It was supposed that this strain is identical to an earlier strain isolated by Vervoort named L. pyrogenes (Vervoort, 1923), which is no langer available. The serovar name is therefore associated with the year 1923. Mochtar (1927) was the first investigator to study the strain and to differentiate Salinem from teh strain Icterohaemorrhagiae, Hebdomadis, Rachmat, Sumatra, Deli B and saprophytic leptospires isolated from water.
The strain was submitted to factor analysis by Kmety (1967), who confirmed its present status. Later it was suggested that the serovar should be placed in subgbroup Pyroenes Dikken, Kmety, 1978).