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Report of the Medical Officer of Health.
23
Five of the cases on admission to hospital were found not to
be suffering from enteric fever.
The number of cases is 10 under that of last year, and 22 below
the corrected decennial average.
One of the cases was notified as para-typhoid fever, and this
case recovered.
In two of the cases there was a history of having consumed
ice-cream two or three weeks prior to the attack. In one case no
history could be ascertained, and the remaining 13 cases were the
subject of a special report of which the following is a precis:—
The first case was notified on the 11th July, and the last on the
7th November. Five of them came from Summerstown and eight
from Burmester Road.
As a result of enquiries made, it was found that 10 of the cases
had been supplied with milk by a registered purveyor in this Borough
who obtains his milk from 10 or more farms in the country. Two
of these farms adjoin each other at Verwood, Wimborne, Dorsetshire,
and in February and March of this year 12 cases of enteric
fever were notified in that district—two of them being at one of
the farms.
At one of the farms both the farmer and his daughter suffered
from the disease. They were taken ill in January, and appear to
have been treated at the farm, which was disinfected on 6th April.
Previous to that date, three negative tests, made at weekly intervals,
had been obtained from each patient. Two and a-half months
later, the first case in Wandsworth was taken ill, the ascertained
date of onset being the 20th June.
If this case was infected through milk from the farm at Verwood,
it is likely that a focus of infection continued at the farm after the
6th April—the supposed date of recovery of the farmer and his
daughter. There is evidence that this may have occurred, as the
farmer is said to suffer from gall stones—a condition closely associated
with the carrier problem in enteric fever. The stools of both
the farmer and his daughter were again examined, but proved to
be negative.
The whole of the milk from the farm is sent to the Wandsworth
dairyman, except a small quantity retained for domestic purposes,