London's Pulse: Medical Officer of Health reports 1848-1972

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Islington 1960

[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Islington Borough]

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26
2. Occurrence 6.7.60 - This outbreak occurred in a school and the 13 persons affected
comprised five adults and eight children. Symptoms of abdominal pain, nausea and vomiting,
with diarrhoea in a few, commenced within 4 to 6 hours, but the duration of the illness
was quite short. The probable cause of the outbreak, staphylococcus phage type 42E was
isolated from stool specimens of a member of the kitchen staff as well as from the nasal
passages of another member of the staff. The same germ was also found in ham, corned beef
and caramel sauce. It appears that the ham, after being supplied from the meat depot, was
cooked on 1st July and placed in the refrigerator. It was reported that the refrigerator
broke down on 5th July, when the meat was removed and placed in the cooling-off room where,
presumably, the temperature was insufficiently low to inhibit some multiplication of food
poisoning organisms.
Typhoid and Paratyphoid Fever
There were two cases of typhoid and three cases of paratyphoid fever during the year
The first patient, a female aged 30 years, commenced to have symptoms two days after return
from Iran where, presumably, she contracted the infection. The diagnosis was confirmed by
blood culture, stool culture and widal agglutinations. She made a satisfactory recovery.
The other case was a nineteen-months-old-infant, whose mother was found to be a chronic
carrier. The father was employed as a cook, but discontinued work on the circumstances coming
to light. This family, of course, will be kept under observation.
Two of the paratyphoid cases were husband and wife found to be infected with salmonella
paratyphi B, and the third was also paratyphi B in a 13-year-old child THe origin of infection
was not traceable.
Dysentery
The incidence of dysentery in 1960, with 1,029 cases, was considerably higher than in 1959
when there were 394 cases. From the detailed analysis it will be noted that approximately one
third of all dysentery cases were under the age of five years and another third of school age,
which appears to be a fairly common distribution. There were groups of cases at two day
nurseries in the Borough, otherwise the distribution was fairly general. Domiciliary enquiries
elicited that 24 of the cases were employed as food handlers and their work, of course, was
discontinued during their periods of infection.