STREPTOCOCCIC AND PNEUMOCOCCIC INFECTIONS OF THE NOSE AND THROAT IN YOUNG ADULTS

Abstract

We have been impressed by the lack of detailed and accurate information in medical textbooks about the most common diseases which the average American physician is called on to treat. For this reason, an attempt has been made to gather together some of the observations made in our own work on tonsillitis, pharyngitis, laryngitis and paranasal sinusitis. It is appreciated that the clinical conditions mentioned here seldom occur alone. They are most often a part of a diffuse involvement of the upper respiratory passages. Often they are complications of other diseases. An attempt has been made, however, to separate them from ordinary uncomplicated colds, influenza, bronchitis and pneumonia. Scarlet fever enters into the discussion as a part of the hemolytic streptococcus infections of the nose and throat. Diphtheria, Vincent's angina and syphilitic infections are not considered here. INCIDENCE In a nursing population averaging 1,034, over a five year period, the