K.J是一个27岁的妇女,现在她的双手弯曲得像鸟爪一般,齐腰的长发大部份已脱落,各个指尖和两个脚趾因坏疽而失去感觉。由于双手失去功能,她失业了。类似此例病人的耸人听闻的报道最近在全国的电视和报纸上一再出现。人们叙述了新近认识的被称为毒性休克综合征(Toxic Shock Syndrome,即TSS)的后果,这种综合征被认为与棉塞的使用有关。1978年,丹佛的儿科医师James Todd首次报道了这一综合征。他通过7个病儿(三个男孩,四个女孩)识别了此病并把它与金黄色葡萄球菌相联系。1980年1～9月间,亚特兰大疾病控制中心确认了全国的299个病例,其中29例致死。最近威斯康星洲的一项研究估计,每十万个正在行经的妇女中只有 K.J, a 27-year-old woman, now with her hands curled like a claw, most of her waist-length hair has fallen off and her fingertips and both her toes have lost their sense of gangrene. She was unemployed because she lost her hands. Sensational reports of patients like this one have recently appeared repeatedly in television and newspapers throughout the country. People described the consequences of what they recently recognized as Toxic Shock Syndrome (TSS), which is thought to be associated with the use of tampons. In 1978, James Todd, a Denver pediatrician, first reported the syndrome. He identified the disease with seven sick children (three boys, four girls) and linked it to Staphylococcus aureus. Between January and September 1980, the Atlanta Centers for Disease Control identified 299 cases nationwide, of which 29 were fatal. A recent study in Wisconsin estimated that only one out of every 100,000 women are passing by