View report page

hospital receiving treatment for another complaint. The father
subsequently became infected, as did an aunt when visiting from
another part of the Country. All had organisms of Type 3a.
The source of para-typhoid infection is usually some food
stuff but the food concerned in this case could not be traced.
Typhoid is more often traceable to water and it should be noted
that each year cases of one or other of these intestinal diseases
occur in persons returning to this Country from the Continent.
As so many residents now go overseas for their holidays, the
desirability of prior inocculation against typhoid and para-typhoid
should be considered, especially if going to countries in which
the hygienic standards are inferior to ours.
DYSENTERY.
If reference is made to Table III in the Appendix, it will be
noted that this disease first became prevalent during the war but
that until 1955 there was a general tendency for the number of
cases to decrease. In fact, until that year the cases were almost
all due to the more severe Flexner type of the disease and were
mental hospital cases. In 1955, however, only 32 of the 98 cases
notified were of this type, the majority being of the very prevalent,
though much milder Sonne form of dysentery. This disease was
widely spread in this part of the Country.
In 1956 there were 26 cases notified from the mental hospitals,
(3 of the Flexner type) and 55 from among ordinary residents. This
picture would have been quite different had it not been for 43
cases occurring in a large residential school. The epidemic there
occurred in May and was abated in June. All the other cases
were limited to one or more cases which occurred in individual
families, mostly in the early months of the year.
The prevention of the spread of Sonne dysentery is almost
entirely a matter of practising hygienic habits and particularly
those of cleansing the hands thoroughly after going to the W.C.
and before handling food.
FOOD POISONING.
The preceding remarks apply also to the prevention of this
group of infections, the prevalence of which increased with communal
feeding during and after the war, but in respect of which
public opinion has been steadily built up and supported by new
legislation.
In 1956 only 8 cases were notified locally and confirmed, all
being members of the same household, but on 8 other occasions,
suspicious symptoms prompted investigations into the food consumed
by the families concerned with negative results. In the
confirmed outbreak the organism (S.typhi murium) may have
originated in some stale crab which had been eaten, or in
incompletely cooked duck's eggs. In either case infection was not
due to unhygienic practices but to the organisms which had
20