Pink Disease

THE first account of this disease was published in 1903 by Selter of Solengin, who called it trophodermatoneurosis, but not until Dr. Swift of Australia described it was it recognised as a clinical entity. Since then numerous descriptions have appeared, including that of Feer, a German paediatrician. Several names are still current, e.g., erythrcedema, acrodynia, dermato-polyneuritis, while in Germany the condition is known as Selter-Swift-Feer's disease. Cases of pink disease are being observed with increasing frequency in Northern Ireland, or perhaps one should say, more frequently recognised and not diagnosed as cases of vague rickets or teething disorders. The clinical picture is as follows: a child of six months to two years old has become gradually fretful and miserable and refuses food. Insomnia is marked, there is hypotonia of muscles and the mother may offer the information that "the baby's head has become loose." At some stage there appears a fine papulo-vesicular red rash either preceded or followed by marked redness of feet and hands, which remain cold. The tip of the nose is often red, which may be due to the fact that the child burrows into its pillow because of intense photophobia. The following description of the disease is based on a series of twenty cases admitted to the medical ward of the Belfast Hospital for Sick Children during the period 1933-38.