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Specimens received in the Public Health Department office are collected
on Monday to Friday at 2 p.m and at 10 a.m on Saturday by a messenger
from the Laboratory Service. Specimens may also be sent direct to the
Hornsey Laboratory before 5 p.m Monday to Friday and 12 noon on
Saturdays.
The Central Public Health Laboratory maintains a 24-hour emergency
service.
The assistance of the technical staff attached to the laboratories is also
available in connection with outbreaks of infectious diseases at day
nurseries and schools and this assistance is extremely valuable in controlling
the spread of infection.
FOOD POISONING
Section 17 of the Food and Drugs Act, 1938 provides that if a registered
medical practitioner becomes aware or suspects that a patient is suffering
from food poisoning he shall forthwith notify the Medical Officer of
Health of the district. Prompt notification ensures that the Medical Officer
of Health is informed of outbreaks of illness occurring in the district and
believed to have been caused by food and is thus able to make prompt
inquiries and take action to avoid the spread of infection and to obviate
a recurrence.
Investigation of a case or outbreak involves extensive inquiries at
patients' homes, and canteens or restaurants at which meals may have
been obtained, as well as the collection of suitable material for laboratory
examination. It is often possible to limit an outbreak by stopping the sale
of suspected food or recovering unconsumed portions already sold.
It is important to identify the types of food poisoning as soon as possible
and this can often be done on clinical grounds and confirmation obtained
from the bacteriological examination of specimens from patients.
Information on every outbreak and an annual return of food poisoning
are sent to the Ministry of Health and the systematic collection of this
information is of great value in the study of matters in connection with
the incidence and control of food poisoning.
Although some forms of food poisoning are of chemical origin the
types most commonly occurring are caused by bacteria mainly of the
salmonella group which have largely been responsible for the remarkable
increase in outbreaks in England and Wales from about 50 per year before
the last world war to 964 in 1949. In 1950, 7,503 persons were notified as
having suffered from food poisoning.
Twelve cases were notified in Hornsey during the year, seven of whom
had apparently been infected at a garden fete. The outbreak was investigated
and salmonella typhi-murium was isolated from the faeces of two
carriers.
Five single cases were notified, one due to staphylococcus pyogenes,
two to salmonella typhi-murium and the other two to unknown causes.
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