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into the hospital from outside in the case of one patient admitted with diarrhoea
and other persons in the same Ward became infected within a few days and a spread
occurred to another ward, apparently through a nurse on night duty relieving between
the two. All cases were adequately treated, and "barrier" nursing as soon
as the nature of the outbreak was known contained the outbreak.
As a result of this, as far as is practicable, the hospital no longer admits
cases likely to be of an infectious nature.
Later in the year a further outbreak occurred in the same hospital in an old
People's Ward, two cases in neighbouring beds and the third and fourth cases,
shared a day room with the two previous cases. One case appeared to be a symptomless
excreter and may have been the cause although it was known that a domestic
working in the Ward had had a stool, positive for Shigella sonnei in the previous
November and it was subsequently learned that she had had an attack of diarrhoea
some ten days before the present outbreak but had failed to report the matter to
the Ward Sister.
An outbreak occurred at a large Secondary School in the area. On enquiry it
appeared that there had been other cases affecting nine children during the two
weeks previous to the notification. As none of the pupils were found to have
symptoms and the school was due to break up on the following day, instructions
were given as to the general need for hand hygiene after using the toilet and before
meals. There were no recurrences in the term after the vacation.
A further outbreak occurred in a "Homeless Families" Unit, particularly
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