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Pediatricians are intimately familiar with Hemophilus influenzae as a cause of meningitis, pyogenic arthritis, and epiglottitis in infants and children. This organism is responsible for an estimated 7,000 cases of meningitis annually in the United States with a resulting 700 deaths per year and a morbidity that leaves the majority of its survivors with disabling neurologic residua.
The book by David C. Turk, DM (Oxon), MRCP (Lond), MCPath, and J. Robert May, MD (Cantab), FCPath, H. influenzae: Its Clinical Importance, published in 1967, provided a review of the epidemiology, immunology, and clinical importance of this organism. Since that time, there has been a resurgence of interest in H influenzae, in part due to the development of a polysaccharide vaccine that provides the potential of preventing meningitis due to this organism. Hemophilus influenzae, edited by Sarah H.W. Sell, MD, and David T. Karzon, MD, is a report of the proceedings of