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59
Metropolitan Borough of Bethnal Green.
Public Health Department.
Enteric or Typhoid Fever.
A number of cases of Enteric Fever have
occurred in Bethnal Green during the past few
weeks.
Enteric Fever is usually contracted by eating
some uncooked article of food containing the germ
of the disease, such as shell fish (especially mussels)
milk or watercress.
Inhabitants of Bethnal Green are strongly
advised against eating raw mussels or oysters;
these should be thoroughly cooked, and milk should
be boiled, and watercress should not be eaten.
By Order of the Public Health Committee,
GEORGE PADDOCK BATE, M.D.,
Medical Officer of Health.
As a result of enquiries made in 1908 in the case of
283 persons taken at random, it was found that about
one fourth of them had been in the habit of eating
mussels two or three times a week.
With respect to the Fever patients who had eaten
mussels, and who in several instances attributed their
illness to this cause, it was ascertained that other
members of the family had joined in the feast without
ill effects; moreover at least half of the sufferers from
fever had never eaten mussels at all. It thus became