View report page

21
In the Brighton outbreak, the first case (a Royal Air Force officer from abroad) was diagnosed
on the 28th December, 1950, as suffering from the disease. Altogether, there were 38 cases with
9 deaths. The patients included 5 nurses of whom 3 had never been vaccinated. There were a number
of St. Marylebone contacts from Brighton and these were kept under strict observation. Moreover,
local medical practitioners were on the alert for possible cases and a number of suspects were reported
from various parts of the Borough. In each instance the Medical Officer of Health was called in
consultation. Fortunately, no case was found to be smallpox. During the outbreak, 201 vaccinations
were carried out in municipal clinics in the Borough. This number included the whole staff at a
bank where a clerk was the first St. Marylebone contact to be notified by the Brighton Health
Department. In addition, apart from vaccinations by general practitioners, 1,700 persons were
vaccinated at the Middlesex Hospital.
Undulant Fever.—Though not a notifiable disease, a case of this rather uncommon fever, usually
acquired through infected milk, was reported early in August, 1950. The patient, an American
tourist, aged 72 years, first felt unwell on the 7th July at his home in Kansas. On the following day
he set sail in the "Queen Mary" for a visit to England and arrived at a Bloomsbury hotel on the
15th July. Feeling generally ill, feverish and exhausted and running a swinging temperature, he
called in a doctor who arranged his removal first to a nursing home in the Borough on the 19th July,
and subsequently to hospital. Various bacteriological examinations were made, and these finally
showed a positive reaction to undulant fever. The Ministry of Health were provided with a full report
of the case, together with detailed information as to where the patient obtained his milk supply
and dairy produce in Kansas, where the infection undoubtedly originated.
Food Poisoning Outbreaks.—Details of cases of food poisoning notified during the year are given
below:—
(a) Number of outbreaks.—One of five cases and also six single cases.
(b) Total number of cases.—Eleven.
(c) Deaths.—None.
(d) Organisms or other agents responsible, with number of outbreaks attributable to each.
Salmonella enteritidis, type Jena—One case 'B' Emteritidis gaertner-Four cases Relates to one outbreak.
Salmonella typhi-murium—One case.
'B' aertrycke—Two single cases.
Not ascertainable—Three single cases.
(e) Foods involved, with number of outbreaks associated with each food—In no case was it possible
definitely to identify a particular foodstuff as being the source of infection.
Tuberculosis—New Cases and Mortality.—Table 8 contains information with regard to age and sex
distribution of, and mortality from, all forms of tuberculosis.

‡ Including all primary notifications and also any other new cases of tuberculosis which
came to the knowledge of the Medical Officer of Health during the year.
Notifications.—Table 7 (p. 20) gives information regarding notifications of pulmonary and nonpulmonary
tuberculosis received during the year. One hundred and fifty-six visits from the housing
and sanitary viewpoints were paid by one of the women sanitary inspectors to new cases and those