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32
NOTIFICATIONS OTHER THAN TUBERCULOSIS
The number of notifications received during the year decreased by 699;
936 cases of infectious disease being notified compared with 1,635 in 1970.
CONTROL OF INFECTED INDIVIDUALS
Public Health Inspectors visit the dwellings of persons known to be
infected or having been in contact with an infectious disease where advice,
surveillance or exclusion from normal occupation may help to prevent the spread
of the disease.
Where necessary specimens from patients or samples of suspected food are
collected and submitted for investigation to the Public Health Laboratory whose
services in this connection are invaluable.
DYSENTERY
57 perse ns were notified as suffering from dysentery and following investigation
of these a number of carriers of the disease came to light. Frequently
one or more carriers are found amongst a patient's home contacts and these are
kept under surveillance until cleared.
FOOD POISONING etc.
36 cases of food poisoning, notified or otherwise ascertained, were investigated
by public health inspectors. All cases were sporadic, 12 being due to
Salmonella Typhimurium, 21 to other Salmonellae and in 3 cases the cause was
not found.
8 other instances of Salmonellae infection were not considered to be food
borne.
Outbreak of Food Poisoning — St. Thomas' Hospital
Following a ball arranged by the students of St. Thomas' Hospital at
Cobham in Surrey in June, a number of persons suffered from sickness and
diarrhoea. The infecting organism was found to be Salmonella St. Paul.
In all some 800 persons attended the ball mostly employed in the Hospital
service — but not all from St. Thomas'.