London's Pulse: Medical Officer of Health reports 1848-1972
View report page
Hints from the Health Department. Leaflet from the archive of the Society of Medical Officers of Health. Credit: Wellcome Collection, London
Kensington 1949
[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Kensington Borough]
This page requires JavaScript
The following table shows an analysis of the 28 notifications of individual cases, setting out the nature of the food suspected or proved to have "been at fault.
| Type of food suspected | No. of cases | No. of patients where causative agent was identified | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Toxin | Salmon -ella | Chemical | Not proven | ||
| MEAT AND MEAT PRODUCTS | |||||
| Cold beef | 1 | 1 | |||
| Bacon | 1 | 1 | |||
| Chops | 2 | 1 | 1 | ||
| Sausage meat | 3 | 3 | |||
| Tinned beef and pork roll | 1 | 1 | |||
| Meat pie | 3 | 1 | 2 | ||
| Rissole | 1 | 1 | |||
| FISH AND PISH PRODUCTS | • | ||||
| Pried fish | 2 | 2 | |||
| Jellied eels | 1 | 1 | |||
| Tinned salmon | 2 | 1 | 1 | ||
| Tinned lobster | 1 | 1 | |||
| Crab paste | 1 | 1 | |||
| EGGS | |||||
| Duck egg | 1 | 1 | |||
| Omelette (hen's egg) | 1 | 1 | |||
| FOOD NOT KNOWN | 7 | 4 | 3 | ||
In 7 of the 8 cases where agents were identified, the
organism isolated was salmonella typhi-murium. In the
remaining case, the organism isolated was salmonella newport.
In no case did death occur.
INFECTIOUS DISEASE
Smallpox.
No case of smallpox was notified in the borough during
the year 1949. Many persons came to Kensington from places
abroad who were reported to have been in contact with smallpox.
Early in April, the s.s. "MOOLTAN" arrived in London carrying
about 1,400 people. During the voyage a death had occurred
on board from smallpox and on arrival several other suspected
cases were removed to hospital. No fewer than 87 persons
(passengers and crew) feame to Kensington, including one
passenger who subsequently moved out of London and died suffering
from the disease. All contacts were kept under
surveillance until the possibility of developing the disease
had disappeared.
Scarlet fever.
The number of cases notified in 1949 was 124, but 10
were subsequently found not to be suffering from scarlet
fever. Of the total number of cases notified, 65 were
treated in hospital. There was no fatal case daring the year.