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60
REPORT ON A RECENT OUTBREAK OF SEPTIC SORETHROAT
DISEASE APPARENTLY CAUSED BY
INFECTED MILK.
To the Chairman and Members of the Public Health Committee.
Gentlemen,
I beg to report that my attention was called, on the 26th of April,
by a medical practitioner of North Hackney, to the prevalence of
sore-throat disease of a septic character in his practice, which
appeared to be associated with a particular milk supply.
In order to ascertain the proportions of this outbreak, and whether
the association with milk supply was general, I immediately sent a
circular letter to each medical practitioner in Hackney asking
whether (a) he had recently met in his practice with any cases of
sore-throat illness, acccompanied by much enlargement of the glands
of the neck and considerable weakness, and, if so, whether (b) the
milk supply to the patients was from a common source.
At the same time I visited the dairy supplying the suspected milk,
and there ascertained that nearly all the milk supplied by this dairy
was obtained from seven different country dealers. In addition a few
cows were kept by the dairyman. I took samples of the country milk
and sent them for examination to the director of the Jenner Institute.
The dairyman's cows were subsequently examined by a veterinary
surgeon, who found them to be in good health. For the purposes of
this report I shall in future refer to this milk supply under the symbol
X. In addition to these investigations I instructed several of the
Sanitary Inspectors to make a house-to-house enquiry in certain areas
where I thought the suspected milk was supplied.
Before giving in detail the result of these investigations I have to
state that both from the replies to my circular and by personal
enquiries amongst the medical practitioners of the district, I
ascertained that there was a prevalence of sore-throat illness of a