Acute respiratory infections

In conclusion, the purpose of this dissertation has been to review the data on acute respiratory infections as to etiology, pathogenicity, clinical syndromes and treatment. It would take volumes to adequately discuss respiratory infections in all their complexity, and by the time any manuscript gets into print, it is likely to be outdated because of the rapid advances in the area of virology and antimicrobial agents. This review in no way claims completeness for any one subject, but an attempt has been made to bring into focus and with some sort of organization the vast amount of information in the literature, recent and old, relative to acute respiratory infections. Perhaps the most encouraging aspects of acute respiratory infections are the mildness and short duration of the vast majority of these diseases, aspects which have been well expressed by A. A. Milne: Christopher Robin Had wheezles And sneezles,… Christopher Robin Got up in the morning, The sneezles had vanished away. And the look in his eye Seemed to say to the sky, “Now, how to amuse them today?” (From Now We Are Six [New York: E. P. Dutton & Co., Inc., 1950] pp. 12–14).