STAPHYLOCOCCIC PNEUMONIA OCCURRING DURING AN EPIDEMIC OF INFLUENZA

Abstract

During the late fall and early winter of 1940-1941 an epidemic of influenza involved most sections of the United States, as well as the Hawaiian Islands, Puerto Rico and probably many other areas.¹ Virus isolations during the acute phase and immunologic studies of acute and convalescent phase serums on patients from widely scattered localities indicated that the virus of influenza A was by far the predominant, if not the only, one of the known viruses implicated in the epidemic.² If one judges from the available reports, the disease generally was mild and pulmonary complications were neither frequent nor severe. The epidemic reached Boston late in December and persisted throughout January; most cases of the disease occurred during the first two weeks of the latter month. The clinical features of some of the uncomplicated cases, along with the results of virus isolations and immunologic studies, have been reported