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SECTION E—INSPECTION AND SUPERVISION OF
FOOD.
(See Sanitary Inspector's Report, on page 46).
SECTION F—INFECTIOUS ILLNESS.
Notification. The following diseases are notifiable in
the Urban District:—
Cholera. Plague.
Cerebrospinal fever. Acute Primary pneumonia.
Continued fever. Acute influenzal pneumonia.
Diphtheria (including mem- Acute Poliomyelitis.
branous croup). Acute Polioencephalitis.
Dysentery. Puerperal Pyrexia.
Enteric Fever (including Relapsing fever.
paratyphoid fevers). Scarlet fever.
Erysipelas. Smallpox.
Encephalitis Lethargica. Trench fever.
Food poisoning. Typhus fever.
Malaria. Tuberculosis (all forms).
Ophthalmia Neonatorum.
Smallpox. No notifications were received.
Enteric Fever. One case of typhoid fever was notified in
the person of a visitor to the district, a man of 56 years who
had temporarily resided in South Croydon at the time when
his infection probably occurred, and at the time when that
particular part of Croydon was at risk from the infected water
supply. The patient was admitted to isolation hospital and
succumbed to the disease.
Dysentery. In October an unusual incidence of diarrhoea
was observed, which persisted into the Spring of 1938.
The symptoms were diarrhoea, colicky pain in the abdomen,
and in a proportion of cases vomiting. The looseness of
the bowels was accompanied in some cases by mucus and blood.
The attack which was mildly febrile lasted in the majority a
matter of two or three days only. Although on the whole a
mild type of illness an occasional case with marked prostration
was observed, particularly in the elderly. It affected
both sexes and all ages indiscriminately.
A series of faecal specimens were examined early in the
outbreak, and in six consecutive cases Sonne's bacillus was
isolated. This information was circulated to the practitioners
in the area with suggestions as to the advice to be tendered
to sufferers, to minimise spread of the infection. As a result
of this a number of notifications of Dysentery were received
during November and December, and into 1938, but in view
of the fact that the majority of cases were mild and of short
duration, practitioners were in some difficulty in deciding
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