Hints from the Health Department. Leaflet from the archive of the Society of Medical Officers of Health. Credit: Wellcome Collection, London
[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Kensington Borough]
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Food poisoning notifications (corrected)
Firs t quarter | 9 |
Second quarter | 13 |
Third quarter | 15 |
Fourth quarter | 10 |
TOTAL | 47 |
Cases otherwise ascertained Nil Fatal cases Nil
Particulars of outbreaks
No. of outbreaks | No. of cases | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Family outbreaks | Other outbreaks | Notified | Otherwise ascertained | Total cases | ||
Agent identified | 2 | 5 | - | 5 | ||
Agent unidentified | 5 | - | 11 | - | 11 |
Single cases
No. of cases | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|
Notified | Otherwise ascertained | Total cases | ||
Agent identified | 11 | - | 11 | |
Agent unidentified | 20 | - | 20 |
Salmonella infections, not food-borne
One incident of cross-infection in a hospital involving two
patients.
The cases of food poisoning summarized in the above table are
reported in greater detail below:-
Outbreaks due to identified agents (2 outbreaks)
(a) The first outbreak involved three out of four members of one
family; the mother, aged 33 years, a girl aged 2 years and a boy aged 1 year.
All the sufferers had fairly severe symptoms of pain and diarrhoea at about the
same time. Faecal specimens from the sufferers showed the presence of
salmonella typhi-murium. A similar specimen from the father, who remained
well throughout, was reported negative.
The coincidence of onsets suggested a common source of infection,
and the father's absence of symptoms and negative specimen pointed to a food
eaten whilst he was not at home. Nevertheless, a firm source of infection
was not established. The children were treated in hospital and mother was
nursed at home. All the patients recovered quickly.
(b) The second outbreak involved a man aged 38 years and his
wife aged 36 years. Symptoms of diarrhoea, vomiting and fever were quite
severe and the couple were removed to hospital.
Unfortunately, food poisoning was not immediately suspected and some
time elapsed before bacteriological examination revealed the presence of
salmonella typhi-murium in the patients' faeces. By the time the Public
Health Department was first notified of the cases, it was too late to obtain
valid evidence of a source of infection.
Outbreaks of undiscovered cause (5 outbreaks)
(a) The first outbreak occurred when a family consisting of