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Previous Volume 335:885-886 September 19, 1996 Number 12 Next

	Since this article has no abstract, we have provided an extract of the first 100 words of the full text and any section headings.

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On the binding of an old book on the shelf in my office is imprinted "Common Contagious Diseases — Stimson."¹ Fifty years ago, when it was published, medical and nonmedical people alike could have told you, without even checking the table of contents, what those diseases were: diphtheria, scarlet fever, measles, rubella, whooping cough, mumps, chickenpox, smallpox, meningococcal meningitis, and poliomyelitis. Now the phrase "common contagious diseases" is obsolete and no longer appears in textbooks about infectious diseases, let alone as the title of a book. Smallpox is gone, and poliomyelitis will soon disappear from the planet. Diphtheria, measles, rubella, . . . [Full Text of this Article]

References

This article has been cited by other articles:

• Bruce, M. G., Rosenstein, N. E., Capparella, J. M., Shutt, K. A., Perkins, B. A., Collins, M. (2001). Risk Factors for Meningococcal Disease in College Students. JAMA 286: 688-693 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
• van Deuren, M., Brandtzaeg, P., van der Meer, J. W. M. (2000). Update on Meningococcal Disease with Emphasis on Pathogenesis and Clinical Management. Clin. Microbiol. Rev. 13: 144-166 [Abstract] [Full Text]