Epidemic nephritis in South Trinidad

ABSTRACT

Over a period of 6 months a remarkable increase was seen in the incidence of acute nephritis among children in South Trinidad, and 263 cases were admitted to a general hospital. The patients were found to differ in their age, sex, and geographic distribution. The disease was associated with respiratory infection rather than skin infection, the form usually seen here, and the appearance of desquamation in many of the children suggested that the underlying organism was one capable of producing scarlet fever. The disease was mild. Only five children (1.9 percent) died, all from cardiac failure. Recovery appears so far to be complete in all but one of the survivors. (Summary)