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Ophthalmia Neonatorum
This infection of the eyes of the newborn is a rare occurrence in these
days of modern chemo-therapy. Only one case was notified—a mild attack
following a domestic confinement which cleared rapidly with the help of
penicillin and left no defective vision.
Puerperal Pyrexia
Extensive hospital maternity services catering for a large part of
Metropolitan Surrey are established in the district. Well over 2,000 confinements
are conducted in these institutions yearly although less than 700
Carshalton babies are born each year. Since medical abnormality existing
or potential is the chief reason for admission to the maternity units, it is to
be expected that an unusually high proportion of these births will be
accompanied by some rise of temperature in the mother and the number of
notifications of puerperal pyrexia correspondingly high.
During 1957, the number of such notifications was 173, all but one of
which were in respect of hospital confinements. Thirty-eight of the total
were in respect of Carshalton mothers. All the notified cases recovered.
Food Poisoning
Fifty-one cases of food poisoning were notified. Of these one was
notified as a suspected case, but investigation did not find anything to
incriminate food as the cause. Another was a tramp who presented himself
at a local hospital with symptoms suggestive of a toxin type of food
poisoning. He quickly recovered. Any food which may have been involved
was purchased in Ipswich and it was impossible to trace the shops where it
was bought.
A third case was also an isolated one in a two-year-old child who
contracted a Salmonella Typhimurium infection and it was not possible to
incriminate any food.
The remaining 48 cases were in respect of an outbreak affecting the
staff of a local hospital. The exact extent of the outbreak could not be
ascertained owing to the difficulty of deciding the cause of an amount
of indefinite abdominal discomfort which is normal expectation in the
relatively large number of individuals at risk which was approximately 400.
The number affected was probably in the region of 60 to 70, although only
in 34 was the offending organism isolated. The agent was Salmonella
Typhimurium and although there was no conclusive evidence as to the
vehicle in which it was conveyed, the circumstantial evidence pointed
strongly to canned beef of Australian origin and that the infection was
present in one tin of several used before being opened.
The sufferers fell into two groups of about equal size, (1) those in
which diarrhoea was an early and pronounced symptom—these made a
relatively rapid recovery in about three days, and (2) those where diarrhoea
was slight, but in whom constitutional disturbance was marked, and these
suffered depression and malaise for a very much longer time.
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