Variola minor in Bragança Paulista county, 1956. Observations on the clinical course of variola minor and on pregnancy in women with the disease.

Occasional observations on the clinical course of 485 cases of variola minor composing an epidemic are reported. 17% of the cases showed a complication. Otitis was observed in one case. An erythematous rash limited to the upper chest, neck and head appeared, instead of the pock eruption, after the pre-eruptive phase, in a previously vaccinated case. Convulsions, drowsiness, stupor, delusions, dizziness or deafness were observed in 23 patients whose individual characteristics are also presented. One of these cases showed a definite neurologicl syndrome: encephalitis. Neurologic complications were mostly seen in patients with medium to severe variola minor. Neither abortion nor death were seen among 4 pregnant women who developed variola minor, even though one of them delivered, on term, a dead foetus, 4 months after developing variola minor.