Dysentery in infancy.

Dysentery is a common disease in Egypt. It affects children of all ages, but is most frequently encountered during the first two years of life. Thus, of 14,304 cases of dysentery examined at Fouad I Children's Hospital, during the last three years, 60 per cent. were in the first two years of life, 30 per cent. in the third to the sixth year and 10 per cent. in older children. The disease occurs sporadically during the whole year, but shows a marked increase during the hot summer months. Of the above mentioned 14,304 cases, 58 per cent. occurred in the four hot summer months of the year (May-August). Both breastand artificially-fed infants suffer from the disease. The latter, however, are more commonly affected. Thus, of 3,000 infants below the age of one year who suffered from dysentery, the incidence of the disease was six times as great in artificially-fed infants as in the breast-fed. As in the case of other infections dysentery presents in infancy many of the features peculiar to this age period. With the aim of recording some of these features, the results of investigations carried out on a series of 100 cases of acute dysentery in infants and children under two years of age are presented.