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17
Small Post.—One case of Small Pox occurred in July, a
young girl residing in Shaftesbury Road. She was removed to
South Mimms Hospital, and all contacts vaccinated and kept under
observation with satisfactory results, as the disease did not spread.
The difficulty of dealing with contacts and the great necessity of
keeping a close observation of their movements may be gathered
from the fact that after the premises in Shaftesbury Road had been
disinfected, some of the inmates again visited a case of Small Pox
in Ealing, and the disinfection had to be done over again.
Enteric Fever.—Forty cases were notified during the
year, and five of these proved fatal. At one time a serious outbreak
was threatened, for no less than eleven cases were notified in
two days, eight of the eleven patients had consumed the milk of a
certain dairy. In one case a patient had taken two glasses from the
suspected milk some fourteen days before being attacked, at home
she and her relatives were supplied from another dairy. Although
it was impossible to prove absolutely that the suspected dairy was
at fault, yet the inference was very suspicous and I immediately
stopped the supply of milk from this source in my district, except
in a pasteurized form, viz., heated to 150° Far. The result of my
action proved successful in arresting what would probably have been
a severe epidemic.
I take this opportunity of laying stress on the importance of
always boiling or pasteurizing milk for dangers of contamination are
very numerous, however stringent the regulations may be.
One case of Enteric was probably caused by sewage contaminated
shell fish.
Probably shellfish, viz., oysters, cockles, mussels and whelks
have played a very large, if not a leading part in the general
incidence of enteric fever in this country.
In sea coast towns they are probably the main source of
Typhoid Fever, though this is not even yet generally acknowledged.
Enteric Fever shows a slight tendency to increase all over the
country, and this regardless of the fact that more care than ever is
taken to guard our water and milk supplies.
The reason in my opinion is that in this country we have not