EPIDEMIC OF ACUTE RESPIRATORY DISEASE ASSOCIATED WITH ATYPICAL PNEUMONIA

Recently, the concept has developed that atypical pneumonia is merely an incident in what is usu-ally a mild epidemic disease of the respiratory tract (1 to 6). A group of workers (3) sum-marize this idea: "There is thus no sharp dividing line, other than roentgen evidence... to differentiate cases of atypical pneumonia from cases of acute bron-chitis resembling atypical pneumonia and from cases of other illness of the respiratory tract.... It seems probable that at least some of these minor illnesses may be milder infections of the same spe-cific nature as atypical pneumonia. Proof of such a hypothesis depends on the demonstration of the causative agent.&quot