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35
Enteric Fever.
1 regret to have to record that of 7 cases of Enteric Fever
three died.
One case came into the District with the disease upon her.
She was removed to hospital. A probationer nurse contracted
the disease from her patient at the Cottage Hospital.
Another patient apparently was infected by eating
oysters taken from a polluted oyster bed at Sheerness This
patient was presumed to have acquired the disease at Beckenham
at a banquet, but on making careful enquiries it was
found that the complaint was evidently not contracted there.
The purveyor of polluted oysters was prosecuted by the Fishmongers'
Company, and was fined 15 guineas and 10 guineas
costs. Another case dwelling at Sydenham was also supposed
to have been attacked by the disease from oysters which were
consumed in different parts of the country, his occupation
being that of a traveller. The source of infection in the other
cases could not be traced.
I take this opportunity of drawing the attention of the
medical profession of the District to Enteric Fever as met
with in infants. During the many years that J have been
Medical Officer of Health not a single case has been notified
to me, and I cannot think it is because such have not occurred
but rather from the fact that it has been overlooked.
Enteric Fever in infants though uncommon even in my
clinical experience with children, nevertheless has been occasionally
encountered by me in them in hospital and private
practice from time to time. It has been looked upon as a curiosity
of medicine, but perhaps it would be nearer the truth to
state that the disease is but rarely recognised in infants. Gastro-intestinal
disturbance, an enlarged abdomen, with or without
slight fever are so frequent in infants from simple causes
that the possibility of the symptoms being due to Enteric
Fever is overlooked. When it does arise in them it is apt
to be wanting in essential symptoms and on that account it
may be difficult to detect. The fever may be quite inconspicuous
or the complaint may be a-pyrexial. The fever may