Hodgkin's Disease: Cases with Features of a Community Outbreak

Abstract

A study of the incidence of Hodgkin's disease in Albany County, N.Y., from 1950 through 1970, showed a period of high incidence followed by an apparently reciprocal period, when the incidence of the disease was below average. The increased incidence closely paralleled temporally the occurrence of cases in a specific group of students, their friends, and household relatives. Thirty-four lymphoma cases, of which 31 were Hodgkin's disease, have been interlinked to date. These observations and the occurrence of similar Hodgkin's disease groupings in two different areas suggest that the pattern of disease occurrence was similar to that of an infectious disease.