1 Pediatric Clinic of Athens University, Athens, Greece
In the February, 1964, issue of Pediatrics a letter to the Editor was published by Rosen and Janeway, in which a strong point was made that fatal progressive vaccinia following smallpox vaccination in children with agammaglobulinemia may be the result of coexisting congenital thymic alymphoplasia. It is the purpose of this letter to draw attention to the fact that children with thymic alymphoplasia may be equally susceptible to fatal generalized BCG infection.
We have rapidly reviewed the cases of fatal generalized BCG infection reported in the literature and have found both direct and indirect evidence that all cases in whom pertinent information is available had profound peripheral lymphopenia.