The Nation - News from Feb. 27, 1987

Toxic shock syndrome, a life-threatening illness that has been linked to the use of tampons and contraceptive sponges, appears also to be a rare complication of flu, government scientists said. Researchers at the federal Centers for Disease Control, in studies reported in today’s Journal of the American Medical Assn., have documented nine cases of toxic shock associated with an influenza outbreak in Minnesota and said the finding may explain many deaths that occurred during previous epidemics, including a plague in Athens that killed tens of thousands of people between 430 and 427 BC.