Incidence of Pellagra

In 1942 Bean, Spies and Blankenhorn¹pointed out that, far from being an exotic disease, pellagra was relatively common in hospitals in Cleveland and Cincinnati during a period when an intensive study of nutritional disease was in progress. At the Lakeside Hospital, Cleveland, initial admissions for pellagra constituted 1.5 per cent of all medical ward admissions from 1930 to 1935, while at the Cincinnati General Hospital such cases constituted 0.95 per cent of medical admissions from 1935 to 1939. These figures were compared with those reported from the Baltimore City Hospital, Charity Hospital (New Orleans), Hillman Hospital (Birmingham, Ala.), University of Georgia Hospital (Augusta) and the Duke Hospital. It is the purpose of the present paper to extend the data on admissions for pellagra at the Cincinnati General Hospital through 1947 and discuss the sharp decrease in incidence. SUBJECTS AND CRITERIA We have included in our analysis all cases