London's Pulse: Medical Officer of Health reports 1848-1972
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Hints from the Health Department. Leaflet from the archive of the Society of Medical Officers of Health. Credit: Wellcome Collection, London
Islington 1970
[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Islington Borough]
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Advice was sought from the medical staff of the department in respect of two patients suffering from
rashes of a type where it was desirable to exclude smallpox as a possible cause. These were subsequently
diagnosed as chicken pox.
CERTIFICATES OF VACCINATION AND INOCULATION - AUTHENTICATION - MINISTRY OF
HEALTH CIRCULAR 60/48
Applications for authentication dealt with by the Medical Officer of Health numbered 4,073 as against
4,045 for the previous year. The applications comprised requests for authentication of International
Certificates of Vaccination and Inoculation against smallpox, yellow fever, cholera, etc., and constituted a
substantial item of work.
FOOD POISONING
| Notifications Received | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1947 | 8 | 1953 | 270 | 1959 | 196 | 1965 | 115 |
| 1948 | 13 | 1954 | 137 | 1960 | 206 | 1966 | 101 |
| 1949 | 62 | 1955 | 315 | 1961 | 148 | 1967 | 90 |
| 1950 | 109 | 1956 | 174 | 1962 | 112 | 1968 | 53 |
| 1951 | 158 | 1957 | 160 | 1963 | 134 | 1969 | 157 |
| 1952 | 84 | 1958 | 230 | 1964 | 131 | 1970 | 121 |
There was only one outbreak (summarised below) to be reported in accordance with Memo. 188 Med. of the Ministry of Health.
| Date | No. of Notifications | No. of persons served | No. of cases reported | No. of deaths | Foods involved and organisms responsible |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3/4.11.70 | - | 208 | 56 | - | Minced beef CI. Welchii |
The above related to an outbreak involving elderly people receiving "meals on wheels."
Information was received on the afternoon of the 4th November that a number of Meals on Wheels
recipients had reported symptoms of vomiting, diarrhoea and abdominal pain following the meal consumed
the previous day. Investigations were immediately instituted and pointed to the main dish of minced meat
being implicated. The full meal consisted of minced meat, cabbage and mashed "real potatoes," sponge
pudding and custard. The meat was delivered on the 2nd November in a ready-minced "chilled condition"
and stored overnight in the kitchen refrigerator. It was cooked on 3rd November for approximately two
hours and served immediately after cooking into individual containers between 10 a.m. and 10.30 a.m. The
prepared meals were then delivered to the elderly people during the remainder of the morning in
charcoal-heated hotlocks.
Subsequent questioning of all those at risk (208) revealed that 56 persons reported symptoms, most of
these having recovered by the following day. One person who had suffered a stroke previously was removed
to hospital on the instructions of the general practitioner. The average interval between ingestion and onset
of symptoms (8-16 hours) pointed to the source of infection as being due to the heat resistant organism,
Clostridium welchii. This was subsequently confirmed when, as a result of laboratory investigation, four
faecal specimens submitted showed cl. welchii present, a common cause of food poisoning in communal
feeding establishments. The vehicle of infection is almost invariably meat which has been cooked and
allowed to cool slowly and then eaten either cold or re-heated.
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