An Outbreak of Streptococcal Puerperal Sepsis

Abstract

HISTORICALLY, streptococcal puerperal sepsis has been one of the most frequent and devastating forms of hospital-acquired infections. Treatises on this subject appeared in the English literature as early as 1795,¹ and some authorities, notably Holmes,² were early believers in the contagiousness of the disease. Person-to-person transmission, however, was not clearly established until the classic studies of Semmelweis.³ Prevention and some degree of control of epidemics of puerperal sepsis was achieved by the introduction of antiseptic, aseptic and isolation technics,⁴ but the number of deaths from this cause still varied from 1.5 to 2.1 per 1000 births in England between 1925 . . .