RESPIRATORY INFECTIONS IN INFANTS' WARDS

The subject of ward infections in children's hospitals has long been one of discussion from the standpoint of contagious diseases, while the infectious nature of the respiratory affections has received little attention until recently. In the wards of the Babies' Hospital it is not measles, whooping-cough or scarlet fever that is feared, but rather the pneumococcus and streptococcus infections, both of which may be said to be omnipresent. In fact it seems evident that if we could prevent the respiratory infections, which begin as simple rhinitis or pharyngitis and frequently end in bronchopneumonia, we could save a much larger number of feeding cases (marasmus babies).

During the past two years we had 129 instances of acute nasopharyngeal infections in our feeding wards and not one single case of measles, whooping-cough or scarlet fever. During this same period we have lost from uncomplicated marasmus but twenty-nine out of 271 marasmus babies