View report page

128
Of the 8 cases, 2 after admission to hospital were found not
to have typhoid fever, one other had typhus fever. With these
omissions only 5 cases of typhoid fever occurred in Finsbury last
year.
Sources of Infection. - The first case was an unrecognised
one in a patient who died while being removed to hospital. He
had been medically treated for " influenza and debility," and had
kept at his work until a few days before his death. He had
stayed in the country a fortnight before his illness became acute,
but no actual source was discovered.
One of the other cases was infected in a country village, where
it had been sent by the promoters of a holiday fund.
The other three patients had contracted the disease by eating
shell fish taken at the seaside from fouled estuaries. In one such
case, notices were displayed on the sea shore warning visitors
against eating the shellfish as they were laid in sewage polluted
water.
All cases of typhoid fever on their discharge from hospital are
visited and examined. A leaflet of instruction is left with them
and special attention is directed to its more important clauses,
which are orally explained at some length. The faeces and urine
are examined bacteriologically only in those patients discharged
for home where there is some evidence or suspicion which points
to their acting as typhoid carriers.
Measures.—The measures adopted were chiefly those set out
in last year's report with the following additional details :—
1. A list of the patients' friends who accompanied them on the
seaside excursions was obtained from school teachers.
Leaflets of instruction were distributed to these contacts in
school.
Their families were visited and kept under supervision.
Letters of information were sent to the various Medical Officers
of Health when the patients lived in other boroughs.