title: Acute hemorrhagic conjunctivitis, Key West, Florida. An assessment of risk factors for introduction of illness into households and secondary spread during the 1981 epidemic.
abstract: From August 22 to November 6, 1981, 989 cases of acute hemorrhagic conjunctivitis were identified in Key West, Florida. The outbreak probably began when an infected 12-year-old Key West resident returned from the Bahamas and transmitted the illness to several neighborhood playmates. The rate of illness was highest for school-aged children, and a high proportion of cases occurred among blacks living in two adjacent low-income housing tracts. A telephone survey of persons living in these two tracts showed that the risk for introduction of illness into a household was 3.8 times greater for families with school-aged children. A study of 100 case households showed that black race, living in the two low-income housing tracts, and having a high ratio of family members per bathroom were variables significantly associated with multiple case households. To limit intracommunity spread of illness, symptomatic children were excluded from school for a period of seven days. The number of reported cases steadily decreased after school exclusion was implemented.
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D044383:Black People; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003231:Conjunctivitis / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000635:transmission; D003441:Crowding; D004196:Disease Outbreaks / Q000453:epidemiology*; D004770:Enterovirus / Q000302:isolation & purification; D004769:Enterovirus Infections / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000635:transmission; D004812:Epidemiologic Methods; D005191:Family Characteristics; D005260:Female; D005431:Florida; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D001741:Black or African American