| Abstrakt: |
During August 1938, an epidemic of diarrhea of the newborn occurred in the nursery of a general hospital. This was the third such epidemic observed in this hospital since its opening, in 1924. The one occurring in December 1926 was carefully studied for the usual dysentery bacilli, but none were isolated, and no other reasonable etiologic explanation was found. The epidemic occurring in October 1934 was similarly studied, with the same negative results. USE OF THE TERM "EPIDEMIC DIARRHEA OF THE NEWBORN" There is no clearcut understanding as to just what is meant by the term "epidemic diarrhea of the newborn." It is our belief that the term should not be applied to those cases of obviously general sepsis with diarrhea as a prominent symptom, such as were described by Blatt and Wolf.1 On the other hand, one should not include those fairly frequent simple parenteral infections of newborn infants |
