1 The Bureau of Preventable Diseases, New York City Department of Health.
An outbreak of epidemic nausea, vomiting and diarrhea in newborn infants is described. The communicability of the disorder is demonstrated by its direct spread to the residents of a child caring institution and to the occupants of a nearby tenement house. We are in agreement with the observations of Brown, Crawford and Stent and those of Cook and Marmion that the condition is a relatively mild one in newborn infants and that it should not be confused either clinically or epidemiologically with the syndrome epidemic diarrhea of the newborn.
A differential diagnosis should be made between this disorder and epidemic diarrhea of the newborn, salmonella infection of the newborn, and the diarrhea accompanying stomatitis in young infants, and should be based on clinical and epidemiologic factors.
Outbreaks in nurseries for newborn infants should be studied carefully and indiscriminate grouping of cases avoided. Distinctive and constant clinical and epidemiologic features should be sought in each outbreak to separate it from the general group of diarrheal disorders of the newborn.
Submitted on June 10, 1948