Epidemic Diarrhea of the New-Born

From time to time, reports appear in the medical literature on outbreaks of diarrheal disorders among residents either of public institutions or of localized community areas. In most instances these recorded epidemics have been of known etiology and have involved adults as well as infants and older children. However, surprisingly few reports have been published on outbreaks of infectious diarrhea solely involving groups of new-born babies. It is of interest, moreover, that instances of such epidemics have been recorded only within recent years. It is therefore our purpose to present a summary of our experiences during the past three years with epidemics of highly fatal diarrhea affecting new-born infants in the nurseries of lying-in institutions in New York City. THE SITUATION OUTSIDE NEW YORK CITY In view of the scanty literature on the problem, it was deemed worthwhile to review the essential facts of the few reported epidemics. For this