On Mon, 18 Nov 1996 22:00:07 -0000, P S Buttar wrote:
>I've just abandoned the Panorama programme about our inability to
>diagnose this condition...
>
>Every parent who watched the prog. will now be studying his or her
>child for the slightest sign of any symptom even vaguely resembling
>those listed by our intrepid reporter - if you missed the prog, you'd
>better read it up over your cornflakes tomorrow, or you'll be
>sorry...
>
I only caught the last ten minutes but it looked predictably
sensationalist. Personally I've never seen a case, either in general
practice or hospital, and my textbooks say very little on the subject.
A quick search on Medline gave an incidence in the under 5s of between
4 and 6 per 100,000 per year. Off the top of my head I'd guess our
practice of just under 10,000 has 600 under fives, which gives a rate
of 1 case every 28 years! According to two other papers, the mortality
rate is only 4 per 1000 amongst those diagnosed as having it.
Dr David Evans
Cardiff
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