AN EPIDEMIC OF INFLUENZA A IN INFANTS AND CHILDREN

Abstract

Acute upper respiratory infections, together with their complications and sequelae, vary amazingly in symptomatology, localization and severity from the common cold at one end of the series through an endless maze of possibilities to a fatal septicemia at the other end. There is no sharp line of cleavage as to classification, pathology or determinable etiology, according to Brennemann.¹ Recent progress, however, in the field of research on upper respiratory diseases has revealed two filtrable viruses, influenza A and B,² both of which may be isolated and identified. Either of these viruses may be the etiologic agent responsible for a portion of these illnesses. Moreover, reliable serologic tests have been perfected for the diagnosis of infection by these viruses.³ It has been possible to diagnose a recent epidemic of influenza among infants and children in the University of Minnesota Hospitals by isolating influenza A virus directly from unfiltered