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confirmed that the patient was not suffering from the disease.
This does, however, serve as a reminder that a high level of
protection by immunisation in the child population is as important
as ever in preserving our present freedom from this infection.
Dysentery
Only 13 cases of this infection were reported during the year,
a figure that can be considered as small compared with the total
population. The cases reported were of the mild sonne type with
the exception of two instances where the patients had recently
returned from Tunisia, the infection in these cases being of the
Flexner type.
Food Poisoning
During the year 19 cases of food poisoning were notified, a
decrease compared with the previous year when 30 cases were
reported. Details of all cases notified or otherwise ascertained are
shown in the table below. In the majority of instances the illnesses
were caused by organisms of the Salmonella group. Most were
confined to individual cases of illness or family infections, and
there was only one general outbreak of food poisoning. The
origin of the infection in this instance proved to be food consumed
at a restaurant and appropriate preventive measures were
taken to eliminate further risk of infection from this source.