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Outbreak due to identified. agent (one outbreak)
Two people (females 40 and 15) suffered abdominal pain and
vomiting after eating lunch at a Kensington restaurant. They had
eaten fried sole, mayonnaise sauce, salad and a variety of other dishes.
Enquiries revealed that twenty-two other persons had been affected and
most of the complainants had eaten mayonnaise sauce and salad.
No food poisoning pathogens were recovered directly from the
cases, and extensive bacteriological investigations of suspected foods
failed to demonstrate the causative agent, although staph, aureus was
isolated from samples of various types of food (all from later stocks).
Staph. aureus were isolated from hand swabs of three kitchen workers
and from swabs of four chopping blocks. Phage typing proved that a
variety of strains was involved, and in only one case - one of the hand
swabs - did the strain belong to the group usually associated with food
poisoning.
For the purpose of record, it was considered that this outbreak
was due to Staphylococcal food poisoning.
Single cases
Thirty-nine isolated cases of food poisoning were notified.
No causative agent was identified in twenty-six of these cases. The
identified agents which caused the other thirteen cases were:
Salmonella typhimurium 11
,, seftenberg 1
,, St. Paul 1
Salmonella notifications - not food borne
One case was reported of a Salmonella infection in a woman,
aged 52, who had apparently been subjected to a "cross-infection"
whilst on holiday in Prance.
INFECTIOUS DISEASE
Smallpox
No case of smallpox was notified in the borough during 1961.
The Ministry of Health's Memorandum on Vaccination against
smallpox recommends that public health officers, likely to have to
deal with cases of smallpox at short notice, should be regularly revaccinated
at not more than yearly intervals. During the year 20
members of the staff of the public health department were vaccinated
or re-vaccinated by the Medical Officer of Health.
Scarlet Fever
The number of cases notified in l96l was 30, but only two
were treated in hospital. There was no fatal case during the year;
in fact, there has been no death from scarlet fever in Kensington
since 1940.
Diphtheria
During the year there was an outbreak of diphtheria at the
London County Council Occupation Centre at Wallingford Avenue, W.10,
and 14 persons were known to have been infected. Three of the cases,
unfortunately, proved fatal.