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Children
Children attending Nursery classes are excluded until one negative
is obtained but three specimens are taken and if one is found positive
the child is dealt with as a case Children attending other schools are
excluded until one negative specimen is obtained
FOOD POISONING
There were 21 cases of food poisoning in the Borough during 1954
including one death This patient, a man of 69 years was admitted to
hospital where he died about 24 hours later The family, who frequently
ate duck eggs, breakfasted on them the day before the patient was taken
ill The first sign of illness was an attack of vomiting followed the next
day by violent diarrhoea A doctor was consulted on the third day and
by the early morning of the fifth day the patient appeared to be recovering;
he relapsed and was removed to hospital later in the afternoon
Salmonella typhi-murium were isolated and at the inquest the coroner
accepted the pathologist's opinion that the source of infection was
probably a duck's egg
As this unfortunate man kept a pet shop, scrapings of droppings from
19 cages containing birds and small mammals were taken for laboratory
examination All proved negative
Of the other twenty cases, sixteen were caused by salmonella typhimurium
and one by salmonella enteriditis; no organism was discovered
in three cases There were no outbreaks, ie involving two or more
related cases from different family or household groups
Occasionally salmonella typhi-murium is remarkably resistant to
chemotherapy and in spite of repeated courses of treatment still persists
One child was in hospital for over two months before the condition
could be cleared up Another patient who was persistently positive was
admitted to hospital because she was an assistant in a grocery and provision
shop and it was, therefore, of prime importance to be certain
that she became completely free from the organism before returning to
work
Food poisoning appears to be still on the increase in this country as
well as in the United States and some continental countries Some of
the apparent increase is no doubt due to improved case finding resulting
from more prompt notification by general practititioners and information
obtained from the reports of the Public Health Laboratory Service
However, there is no doubt that a great deal of the increase is real and
there is still need for great improvement in personal hygiene
It is surprising in such an advanced society as ours, that the elementary
hygienic practice of thoroughly washing the hands after use of the toilet
is not an automatic and natural action
School washing accommodation is often inadequate and situated
remote from the toilet facilities In such circumstances it is difficult to
encourage routine handwashing after use of the toilet There is great
need for improvement in this respect Adequate washing facilities should
also be provided free of charge in all public lavatories Without such
facilities it is futile to exhort hawkers of food and stallholders to keep
their hands clean and to wash them always after using the toilet
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