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18
Dysentery
A total of 133 cases were confirmed during the year compared
with 105 for 1967, and 80 other cases of suspected dysentery were
investigated before the provisional diagnosis was eliminated by
bacteriological examination.
There was one minor school outbreak involving 17 children and
investigation of family contacts revealed a further 9 positive cases.
Food poisoning
There were 155 cases notified. Of these 127 were found not to
be food poisoning after laboratory examination of faecal specimens
from those affected. Eighteen of the remaining cases were
single unrelated cases and four were minor outbreaks involving
ten persons. The causative organisms of the confirmed cases were
Salmonellae brandenburg (1), enteritidis (4), montevideo (1),
oranienburg (8), panama (1), reading (2), seftenberg (1), and
typhimurium (10).
In addition to the above cases an outbreak of salmonella infection,
which occurred in a hospital outside the borough, involved
the department in a fairly intensive investigation of a large number
of persons resident in Wandsworth who were either staff of the
hospital concerned or persons who had been recent in-patients
there. In all a total of 331 persons were investigated, the number
of faecal specimens examined being 464.
The report to the Ministry of this outbreak was made by the
Medical Officer of Health of the borough in whose area the hospital
was situated.
Infective jaundice
This disease became notifiable on 15th June, 1968, under the
Public Health (Infective Jaundice) Regulations, 1968. There were
56 cases notified during the remainder of the year.
Measles
There were 658 notifications received compared with 2,698 in
1967, the latter being an epidemic year.
Tuberculosis
The total number of new cases which came to the knowledge
of the department in 1968 was 164, the sources of information
being as follows:—
Primary notifications 127
Unnotified at death 6
Transfers from other areas 31
Total 164