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- 71
FOOD POISONING
The Food and Drugs Act, 1955, requires any medical
practitioner, on becoming aware that a person is suffering or is
suspected to be suffering from food poisoning, to notify the
Medical Officer of Health.
The following table gives a summary of all cases
(notified or not) brought to notice during 1960:-
Food poisoning notifications (corrected)
First quarter
4
Second quarter
15
Third quarter
13
Fourth quarter
8
TOTAL:
40
Cases otherwise ascertained 6 Fatal cases: Nil.
Particulars of outbreaks;-
No. of outbreaks No of cases
Family Other Notified Otherwise Total
Outbreaks Outbreaks ascertained cases
Agent identified 3 1 11 1 12
Agent unidentified 1 - 2 2
Single cases;-
No. of cases
Notified Otherwise Total
ascertained cases
Agent identified 9 1 10
Agent unidentified 18 1 19
Salmonella infections, not food-borne;-
No. of cases Otherwise Total
notified ascertained cases
Outbreaks 1 - 3 3
Single cases Nil - - -
Outbreaks due to identified agents (4 outbreaks)
Of the 4 outbreaks arising during 1960, 3 were minor
family outbreaks involving six people. The other outbreak involved
six schoolboys from Shaftesbury, Dorset, who had visited an
exhibition in Kensington. All six were treated in a local hospital.
More cases from the same school party were notified to the Medical
Officer of Health of Chelsea, after they had attended a Chelsea
hospital. All the boys affected had eaten minced beef and gravy
paste sandwiches which had been prepared in their school canteen.
The causative agent was staphylococcal infection, and bacteriological
examination of the food at Shaftesbury corroborated the findings in
these cases.