Severe illness with influenza B

Fifteen patients with recent influenza B infection were admitted to three Dallas hospitals in the first 11 weeks of 1977. The patients' ages ranged from five to 73 years, with a median of 18 years. Most had no significant underlying disease. The spectrum of clinical illness included postinfluenzal bacterial pneumonia (three cases), other severe chest disease (two cases), hyperpyrexia and possible rhabdomyolysis in the elderly (two cases), onset of toxemia of pregnancy, thyroid dysfunction, Stevens-Johnson syndrome, neurologic disorders (two cases), and Reye's syndrome (three cases). Two patients died. Two elderly men with high fever and weakness entered the hospital within three days of illness and two of three patients with Reye's syndrome were admitted four days after the onset of influenza, but the 11 other patients gave a history of seven to 31 days of symptoms before being hospitalized. Morbidity and mortality with influenza B are neither trivial nor restricted to debilitated hosts.