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178
Typhoid.—No cases were notified during the year, a position
similar to that of the previous two years. Compared with 2 for
1961, there was a nil return for the years 1960 and 1959, one for
1958, two for 1957 and one for 1956.
Following the request from a local practitioner to obtain faecal
specimens from a male child of 3½ years who was suffering from
diarrhoea and vomiting, salmonella paratyphi 'B' of phage type
'Beccles' was isolated. Subsequently, the father and another child,
a female of 7 weeks, were also found to be paratyphoid cases.
On request, samples of tap water from the family's residence
were taken by the Metropolitan Water Board with negative results.
Typing the organism had proved to be a little difficult but
finally, when the phage type had been established, it transpired
that it had recently been encountered in the Streatham area.
No connection of the family with Streatham was discovered
but the father had been to St. Tropez and Cannes during the latter
end of 1963 and since then had suffered from some intestinal
disturbance from time to time for which he had not sought medical
advice.
Typhoid fever, a disease which was known to the ancients and
certainly in the time of the Roman Empire, is still endemic in some
parts of the world and can still be just as virulent as shown by the
recent outbreak in Aberdeen. It was only in 1849 that Jenner
finally managed to differentiate this disease from typhus as both
were present in conditions of squalor, filth, overcrowding and poor
sanitation generally. Furthermore, paratyphoid was not distinquishable
from typhoid until more recent years and only became
notifiable in its own right in 1941.
Zymotic Enteritis or Epidemic Diarrhoea (Children under
5 years of age).—Eleven cases were recorded as confirmed compared
with 10 for the previous year, 11 for 1962, 19 for 1961, 57
for 1960, 30 for 1959, 9 for 1958, 12 for 1957 and 17 for 1956.
No case received hospital treatment, and there were no deaths.
In earlier years this complaint was known as "summer
diarrhoea' and, although at the beginning of the century it was
not compulsorily notifiable, it was one of the "killer' infectious
diseases. During 1911, some 159 children in the Borough died from
this disease, a factor Which resulted in the Council making it
notifiable the following year. Since then, the disease has never
been as devastating. Although there are always a number of notifications
received in the department each year, with better hygiene,
improved social conditions and the use of modern drugs the danger
has become minimal.