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34
NOTIFICATIONS OTHER THAN TUBERCULOSIS
The number of notifications received during the year increased by 174;
1,110 cases of infectious disease being notified compared with 936 in 1971.
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
70 persons 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.
44 cases of food poisoning, notified or otherwise ascertained, were
investigated by public health inspectors.
FOOD POISONING - (SALMONELLA)
On 13th January a message was received from a local practitioner that
there was a family outbreak of food poisoning in his practice.
The persons affected were Asians- a family of man, wife and three
children and two brothers of the wife.
These seven persons shared a meal on the evening of 11th January which
consisted of corned beef, tinn.ed peas and packet rice. The ingredients of the
meal were made into a hash and heated in a frying pan. No other food was
eaten at this meal, and although none was available for examination the two
corned beef tins were recovered.
The first persons were affected within about 12 hours and the remainder
over the next 15 to 18 hours.