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67
The cases of typhoid fever possibly attributable to ice-cream
number 18. Last year there were 5. Of these 18, 12 occurred
in June in the same quarter of the Borough. They were as
follows :—Clarence H., aged 9; William G., aged 13; William
B., aged 7; Alfred L., aged 10; William H., aged 17; James
C., aged 15; John R., aged 14; Thomas M., aged 12; Thomas
F., aged 10; Alfred P., aged 14; Gordon M., aged 12; and
Henry P., aged 17. It appears that these 12 boys, although
notified at different periods from June 12th to July 12th,
"actually became ill in June, and several of them went to hospital
together. It was not till some time after their recovery that we
learned that they all had ice cream at about the same time, and,
as far as can be gathered, from the same source, namely, hawkers
in the street. There was no other evidence obtainable in any
one of their cases, and hence, although the information came too
late to be of value in making an enquiry, it is possible that icecream,
contaminated by previous infection, was the cause of these
cases. In six other cases, where there was no other evidence of
infection, the patients attributed their illness to ice-cream.
Bacteriological Diagnosis has been arranged gratis for
all medical practitioners in Finsbury. A few drops of the blood
of the patient are taken and examined by means of the Widal
test as to whether or not the blood contains typhoid toxins. The
results are as follows :—
Total No. of Cases of Typhoid
Doubtful Cases Cases which gave Cases which gave notified without
Examined Positive Results Negative Results Bacteriological
Examination
18 9 9 59