Alopecia following any severe febrile affection is a common occurrence. Morrisey1 states that the older literature gives no references to a postinfluenzal alopecia, but Jackson and McMurtry2 note that, of ninety-seven private patients suffering from a febrile alopecia, influenza was responsible for nine.
There is still some question as to whether the loss of hair after fevers is due to interference with the nutrition or to a toxin acting directly on the hair papillae, although the former view is more generally held. Most of the writers agree that a preexisting seborrhea makes the loss of hair more certain.
To date I have seen fifty patients suffering from alopecia following influenza. Of these, three were men and forty-seven were women. It is highly probable that women are much more apt to consult a physician, men feeling that the affection is trivial and hardly worth troubling about. Several of the