Paediatric aspects of the Aberdeen typhoid outbreak.

On May 16, 1964, a woman was admitted to Aberdeen City Hospital for Infectious Diseases for investigation of pyrexia. By May 20 the diagnosis of typhoid had been established in this patient and in several other patients admitted to the City Hospital and to Aberdeen Royal Infirmary between these two dates. From May 16 to July 31 when the last case was admitted, a total of 507 cases of typhoid was investigated and treated in Aberdeen hospitals, and 8 additional patients infected in Aberdeen are known to have been treated elsewhere-one of them as far away as Toronto. Of the 507 patients, 86 were children under the age of 12 years who were admitted between May 19 and June 25. This paper gives an account of the clinical features and manage- ment of these 86 children, refers briefly to the bacteriological and serological findings in them, but does not touch at all upon the epidemiological or other public health aspects ofthe disease, which must obviously be considered with reference to the out- break as a whole. As age does to some extent modify the clinical picture, we feel it may be of value to record separately our experience with this age-group in the first large epidemic of typhoid in this country for 30 years.