Occasional observations on the clinical course of 485 cases of variola minor composing an epidemic are reported. 17% of the cases showed a complication. Otitis was observed in one case. An erythematous rash limited to the upper chest, neck and head appeared, instead of the pock eruption, after the pre-eruptive phase, in a previously vaccinated case. Convulsions, drowsiness, stupor, delusions, dizziness or deafness were observed in 23 patients whose individual characteristics are also presented. One of these cases showed a definite neurologicl syndrome: encephalitis. Neurologic complications were mostly seen in patients with medium to severe variola minor. Neither abortion nor death were seen among 4 pregnant women who developed variola minor, even though one of them delivered, on term, a dead foetus, 4 months after developing variola minor.

Adolescent↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Contour mapping of the temporal-spatial progression of a contagious disease.

A methodology for contour-map study of contagious-disease epidemics is presented. Its application is exemplified in a smallpox epidemic occurring in a small Brazilian town. Computer-controlled contour-mapping of dates of introduction of variola minor into 169 households and the coordinates of the affected dwellings did not show a single contour pattern, but a group of subareal patterns of within-household outbreaks. Introduction by adults and pre-school children were distributed throughout the whole city area. However, introduction by school children formed two groups of contours and of affected dwellings. Each group was included in a discrete area corresponding to the zone of pupil recruitment of the two schools enrolling 91% of the school-child introductory-cases. The latter were responsible for introduction of the disease into 45% of the city's affected households. Altogether, both zones practically covered the whole city area. In either zone, several patterns surrounded the corresponding school. Even though no time value was entered for any school, contour maps clearly evidenced the influence of those two schools on spread of the epidemic. An estimated rate of linear spread of variola minor was 1.35 m per day in a city subarea.

Adolescent↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Variola minor in Bragança Paulista County, 1956. Respiratory manifestations in cases of variola and in household contacts of cases.

A respiratory complication was recorded for 62 of the 485 cases of variola minor occurring in Bragança Paulista County, Brazil, 1956. The respiratory complication preceded onset of the classical variola minor in 2 cases; lasted only the pre-eruptive phase in 38 cases; lasted only the eruptive phase in 9 cases; lasted both the pre-eruptive phases in 1 case and had an unrecorded relationship to the clinical course in 12 cases. Six of the 17 household contacts with a respiratory syndrome contemporaneous with variola in the household had previously suffered from variola.

Adolescent↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Concepts of diffusion theory and a graphic approach to the description of the epidemic flow of contagious disease.

Concepts used to analyze sociological, geographic, and economic processes were adapted to an examination of the diffusion of contagious disease. The example used in applying these concepts was an epidemic of variola minor which continued for 12 months in an area of 1,006 square kilometers centered on the city of Bragança Paulista, Sao Paulo State (Brazil). A graphic procedure is proposed that depicts aspects of the epidemic flow of person-to-person transmission. Spatial, temporal, and sociological characteristics of the epidemic flow are disclosed in sequential diagrams. They represent geographic areas as well as schools and agglomerates of households affected by the epidemic at a given time, the mode of diffusion, and the source of the infection. The procedure yielded indirect evidence of the role of school pupils as introducers of variola minor into households and school classes. All subdivisions of the city, six of the seven rural districts, and four of the five elementary schools were affected through hierarchical (between-areas) diffusion. Subsequently, there was neighborhood (within-area) diffusion, and this resulted in new interactions between areas.

Brazil↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Variola minor in Bragança Paulista County, 1956: propagating-rate analysis of the spread of variola minor in two elementary schools.

Explore the source record for details and available documents.

Brazil↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Variola minor in Bragança Paulista County, 1956. Distribution of onset of cases in the two schools including most school children with variola.

Class attendance during illness was confirmed for numerous pupils of two schools. Successive generations whose median cases were separated by an interval consistent with the "serial interval" of variola minor were clearly found in the epidemic curve for II of the 29 classes with cases from both schools. Twenty two other classes had no case at all.

Brazil↗