[Several acute respiratory diseases and influenza incidence in the region served by the First Municipal Hospital, Sofia].
The author studies the acute respiratory diseases (ARD) and grip in the district of the First City Hospital--Sofia, during the period 1970--1972, as they are met in the daily practice of therapeutists and pediatricians. Those diseases were proved to be widely spread throughout the year and to play a basic role in the daily morbidity among children and adults. They are responsible for about half of the home-visits of therapeutists and pediatricians. The type of the ARD curve during all seasons determines the type of the curve, formed by all other diseases, ARD curves of children and adults are markedly similar during all seasons, due most probably to the identity of the factors, responsible for those diseases. The author characterizes the clinical peculiarities, course and complications of ARD during the different seasons of the studied period. The curve of the days with temporary incapacity for work (TIW), due to ARD, defines the type of the curve of TIW for all diseases and during all seasons. During 1971 and 1972, years of grip epidemies, ARD and grip were responsible for 20--25 per cent of TIW and together with the days of TIW spent on attendance of children with ARD and grip--they were responsible for over one third of TIW for all diseases. The author lay stress upon the necessity of collaborative studies on those diseases as a medico-social problem not yet solved.