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The evening refill clinic continues to be held on Tuesday
evenings in addition to the day-time diagnostic and refill sessions.
Typhoid and Para-Typhoid Fever.
One case of typhoid fever was notified during the year and
removed to hospital.
The patient, a child of pre-school age. had been away from
home during the three weeks preceding his illness, and had returned
from this holiday only a few days before the onset of the symptoms.
During this period he accompanied relatives who were engaged in
fruit picking, and had been living in rather primitive conditions,
sharing accommodation with an older member of the family.
Although it appeared certain from the time factor that the
disease had been contracted during the holiday, preliminary enquiries
revealed no obvious source of infection. None of the contacts
had, to their knowledge, suffered from the disease, and there had
been no other cases in the vicinity. No suspicion could be attached
to any of the foodstuffs consumed ; the milk supply was satisfactory,
and the main water supply had been used. The only suspicious
feature was that the patient had bathed in a nearby stream, which
was known to be heavily polluted, and in the absence of a known
carrier, this, at first, appeared to be the most likely source of
infection.
Arrangements were made for all contacts to be visited, and
speciments of faeces requested for bacteriological examination, the
assistance of a neighbouring health department being obtained in
the case of contacts living outside the district.
Some suspicion was aroused when it was learned as a result of
these visits that the parent of two other children present on the holiday
had suffered with typhoid many years previously. Although she