A case of toxic shock syndrome in an eight year old girl

Toxic shock syndrome (TSS) is an acute febrile illness with mucocutaneous manifestations and multisystem involvement, often associated with focal staphylococcal infection 1 . Many cases occur in menstruating women who are 15-25 years of age and use tampons or other vaginal devices in the presence of vaginal colonisation or infection with toxinproducing strains of staphylococcus aureus 2 . TSS, however, also occurs in children, non-menstruating women and men associated with wound infection, nasal packing, sinusitis, tracheitis, pneumonia, empyema, abscesses, burns, osteomyelitis and primary bacteraemia 3 . Several cases have been reported in children 1,4.