Clinical Experience with Toxic-Shock Syndrome

To the Editor: We have recently treated 16 patients (14 female and two male) with toxic-shock syndrome. Since there is a dearth of medical literature on this disease, we think that a brief description of the illness and its association with Staphylococcus aureus would be beneficial to the practitioner. Toxic-shock syndrome, originally described by Todd et al., ¹ is an uncommon illness that occurs primarily in previously healthy women, with onset during the second to fourth days of menstruation.^{2 , 3} It is characterized clinically by the abrupt onset of fever above 38.9°C (102°F), mild headache, sore throat, profound lethargy, intermittent confusion, nausea,.