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egg albumen. One of the samples of Chinese frozen liquid
egg yielded salmonella paratyphi B, phage type Taunton
and, on the strength of this, an unused 44-lb. tin of this
product, together with a quantity of cakes about to be sold
and made with Chinese egg, were taken out of circulation
and destroyed, notwithstanding the fact that there was no
evidence that they were, themselves, infected.
In regard to the faecal specimens taken from the staff,
a report was received from the Public Health Laboratory at
Maidstone, that a specimen from one of the pastrycooks had
yielded S. paratyphi B, and it was later ascertained that this
was found to be a phage type 1. The results from the
Infectious Diseases Hospitals showed that the S. paratyphi
B isolated from the 24 patients in the outbreak had all
proved to be phage type 1 and in view of this fact the
question was raised of whether the pastrycook could have
been (a) the primary cause of the outbreak (carrier), or (b)
a symptomless excreter due to his having, himself, eaten
infected products from the bakery.
It will be recalled that a S. paratyphi B phage type
Taunton had been recovered from a specimen of Chinese
frozen egg taken from the bakery and it, therefore, appeared
that the latter could not have been the cause of the outbreak,
but I was informed that the isolation of phage type Taunton
did not entirely absolve the liquid egg as the cause of the
outbreak as a strongly growing organism may overgrow
others in culture and that a phage type 1 may still have
been present. The pastrycook in question was sent a formal
notice in accordance with The Public Health (Infectious
Diseases) Regulations, 1953, requiring him to discontinue
his occupation until further notice.
In the meantime, the Public Health Laboratory Service
had been examining the remainder of the consignment of
Chinese frozen liquid egg, which was under suspicion in our
paratyphoid outbreak and which had been traced by the
Ministry of Health to Manchester and Bermondsey.
At Manchester samples obtained from 50 tins showed
four positives, the species being S. paratyphi B, phage type
Taunton, S. thompson, S. meleagridis and S. aberdeen.
Among the 91 tins from Bermondsey salmonella had, also,
been isolated and the species identified were as follows:
thompson (7), aberdeen (1), Stanley (1), paratyphi B dundee
(1); 3a var. 1 (1) and type 1 (1); the last, of course, being
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