[Epidemic of tuberculosis in a maternity hospital triggered by congenital tuberculosis in a newborn infant].

The development of several cases of miliary tuberculosis in infants aged 3--4 months, born in the same maternity led to an epidemiological investigation. On this occasion it was discovered that one of the patients that had been discharged immediately after delivery had pulmonary granulia a monthlater. The immature newborn was left in the maternity and died after one month with a diagnosis of "pulmonary microabscesses". The histopathologic examination of the lungs showed the presence of necrotic foci without any cellular reaction. Five months after the death of the infant a new examination of a pulmonary fragment was performed and Ziehl-Neelsen staining evidenced a large number of acido-resistant bacilli filling the lung alveoles. It was shown in this way that the infant with tuberculosis was the primary source of infection. All the 8 children that had developed the disease had been hospitalized in the same ward with the sick child. The transmission of the bacilli was done indirectly, through the feeding tubes that had not been sufficiently serilised, and the penetration ronte was the digestive tract. In two cases an otic primary focus was discovered and in one case an intestinal one was found on necropsy.