CLINICAL AND EPIDEMIOLOGICAL FEATURES OF AN UNUSUAL EPIDEMIC EXANTHEM

During the late summer of 1951 the occurrence of a mild illness in children, characterized by a skin eruption, was brought to the attention of the Division of Communicable Diseases of the Massachusetts Department of Health. Inquiry of practicing physicians indicated that the outbreak was fairly widespread and that the clinical features of the illness did not readily conform with those of the commonly recognized exanthems. However, the skin eruption in isolated cases was similar to that seen in rubella (German measles). With the collaboration of the Research Division of Infectious Diseases of the Children's Medical Center, specimens of throat washings, stools, and blood were collected for study from a group of patients with the exanthem. Certain of the clinical and epidemiological features of the outbreak are described in this paper, since the disease appeared to represent a definite clinical entity and because a group of new transferable agents were