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12
Typhoid
At the beginning of the year, typhoid fever was diagnosed in an
expectant mother with four children. The patient was married to a
Pakistani and six other Pakistanis were resident in the same house,
One of these was found to be harbouring a typhoid bacillus of the same
phage type in his stools, and it was considered that he had been a
typhoid carrier for many years. He had been in this country since 1957,
This man was admitted to hospital and removal of his gall bladder was
necessary to relieve his carrier state.
A technician in a laboratory in which cultures of typhoid bacilli
were used to test bacteriological culture media manufactured by a firm,
developed typhoid fever, the organism which was isolated belonging to
a strain resembling that of the stock laboratory cultures. The patient,
who worked but did not reside in Southwark, had been inoculated against
this condition during his Army service and was not seriously ill.
Para-typhoid fever
Nineteen cases of para-typhoid fever were notified during 1959.
The phage type of the causal organism in the first case which occurred
was different from that of the later cases. The phage type in all of
the remaining eighteen cases was 'Taunton'. The patients were resident
in one part of the Borough, and the immediate cause of this small outbreak
was considered to be a night baker who was found to be excreting
an organism of the same strain. Three persons who although not resident
in Southwark had consumed confectionery from the same baker, also
became infected. The carrier was successfully treated in hospital.
Thirteen of the eighteen cases were members of four households.
Food Poisoning
The great majority of the twenty-seven cases of food poisoning
were single cases. Multiple infection, however, occurred in three
families. A mother and her ten months old child both became ill at the
same time. In another family, two sisters and a brother developed the
condition, while in a third family the mother and four children were
affected. In not one instance was the actual food giving rise to the
trouble identified. The causal organism was Salmonella typhi-murium in
sixteen cases, Salmonella St. Paul in five cases, (one family),
Salmonella Anatum in two cases, and Salmonella Thompson in one case.
In the remaining cases no organism was isolated. Four of the twentyseven
cases were admitted to hospital.