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40
Typhoid Fever. There were 28 cases of Typhoid Fever
notified during the year, 15 being in East Greenwich, 5 in West
Greenwich, 4 in St. Nicholas, 2 in Charlton, and 2 in Kidbrooke.
The ages of the patients were: 2 between one and five years, 6
between five and fifteen years, 13 between fifteen and twenty-five
years, and 7 between twenty-five and sixty-five years. Of the
total number of cases, 21 were removed to the hospital for treatment.
There were 5 fatalities from this disease during the year,
2 belonging to East Greenwich, and 1 each in West Greenwich,
St. Nicholas, and Charlton. Twenty-nine specimens were forwarded
for bacteriological examination from cases suspected to be
Typhoid Fever in character, and of this number 21 gave a
negative result, 2 were of a doubtful character, and 6 positive.
Four cases which were notified and removed to the hospital,
presumably suffering from this disease, were considered by the
authorities in charge there not to be suffering from such disease,
one each being diagnosed as suffering from the varying complaints:
Pylephlebitis (inflammation of the Portal Vein), Gastritis. Lobar
Pneumonia, and General Meningitis.
Enquiries have again been made in connection with each
case notified as to any possible source of infection, and there does
not appear to have been any one source acting generally throughout
the whole of the year, the number of cases being spread over the
whole of the twelve months. In one case it was thought that
the disease was contracted from swimming in the polluted water
of the Thames, and in another case by eating ice-cream; the
premises, however, where this latter commodity was manufactured,
were visited and examined, when they were found to be in good
condition. The following six patients gave a definite history of
having partaken of some kind of fish or oysters, and it was thought
that the ailment might have been contracted in this way.