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97
NOTIFICATION OF FOOD POISONING
Under the provisions of Section 17 of the Food and Drugs Act,
1938, every registered medical practitioner attending on any person
shall, if he suspects or becomes aware that any person is suffering
from food poisoning, forthwith notify such case to the Medical Officer
of Health.
There were 14 notifications received during the year compared
with 12 in 1954, 9 in 1953, 10 in 1952, 4 in 1951 and 12 in 1950.
All cases were of the sporadic type and in 6 instances Salmonella
typhimurium was identified as the specific agent involved. Tinned
peas was the suspected source of infection in three other cases (all
soldiers) but only in one instance was any causal organism identified
and this was of the Staphylococcal group.
A further case concerned a child of 2 years who was attending
the Miller General Hospital as an outpatient. It would appear that
after leaving a residential nursery in April 1954, he had diarrhoea
and vomiting and since then he has had recurrent attacks, usually
about once a month. One specimen only revealed the presence of
Salmonella Worthington and it was presumed that the patient was
a chronic carrier. The child was admitted to the Park Hospital
where the laboratory staff were unable to isolate this organism and
rediagnosed the case as one of non-specific enteritis.
In the remaining cases the suspected food was unobtainable
and the cause was unascertainable.
A complete recovery was made by all patients.