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42
No silverside of beef was left in hand on Thursday, the 14th
June, at dinner-time (early closing) or on Friday evening, the 15th
June. The shop is of modern construction and well kept. The
manager informed me that no member of the staff had recently
been off duty suffering from illness of a suspicious nature.
On Monday morning, the 18th June, I received further information
that ten additional families were affected and in each case the
victims had partaken of cooked silverside of beef purchased from the
same shop as the previous cases and on the same date, Friday, the
15th June, with the exception of one family in which case the beef
was purchased on Saturday morning. In this particular family,
though three persons partook of the beef, only one was affected. On
Tuesday, the 19th June, three members of a family partook of
sandwiches made from ham purchased on the 18th at the suspected
shop. They were all seized with intense sickness and diarrhcea
within 2\ hours of eating the sandwiches.
At the commencement of the outbreak, I communicated with the
Medical Officer of Health of the district where the premises in
which the beef was prepared, cooked and wrapped, were situated.
It was learned that complaints of alleged illness after eating meat
purchased from two of the other branch shops had been received by
the firm.
The bacteriological report on the sample of meat previously
mentioned was received on the 21st June, and was as follows: —
" Bacteriological examination of the sample of meat gave a
growth of Bacillus Coli, Bacillus Proteus and putrefactive
organisms, but organisms of the Salmonella Group were not
found."
Agglutination Tests on blood from one of the patients were as
follows: —
Aertrycke Negative
Gaertner ditto
Salmonella Group ditto