Abstract

SUMMARY(1) During the forty-year period 1904-1944 there were 246 individuals with primary autochthonous erysipelas admitted to Gorgas Hospital, Canal Zone. The rate was 4.6 per 10,000 hospital admissions. Six patients or 2.5 per cent died.(2) No significant seasonal or annual variations in incidence were noted.(3) The disease was primarily one of adult life, 62.2 per cent of all cases being between 21 and 50 years of age. The lesions involved the extremities in 69.5 per cent, the head in only 24.4 per cent of the patients. In 8.9 per cent complications occurred.(4) A distinct racial variation was noted. United States white patients had an incidence of 8.2 per 10,000 hospital admissions, Panamanian mestizos 7.8, and West Indian Negroes only 1.8 per 10,000 admissions. These data corroborate the generally accepted opinion that the Negro has a remarkable resistance to erysipelas.