London's Pulse: Medical Officer of Health reports 1848-1972
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Hints from the Health Department. Leaflet from the archive of the Society of Medical Officers of Health. Credit: Wellcome Collection, London
Dagenham 1956
[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Dagenham]
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Paratyphoid B. Fever
Circumstantial evidence indicated that imitation cream contaminated
by imported frozen egg products in a local bakery gave
rise to an outbreak of paratyphoid B. fever in which at least 42
cases were notified. Two employees at the bakery were found
during the investigations to have contracted the disease, but were
without doubt victims and not the cause of the outbreak. Elaborate
precautions had been taken at the bakery to prevent contamination
of imitation cream, but failure to comply with the precautionary
measures laid down by the management resulted in this outbreak.
There were no known secondary cases.
Following this outbreak the management agreed to arrange
for a local doctor regularly to attend the bakery to advise on
medical matters and examine employees where necessary.
| Under 1 year | 1—2 | 3—4 | 5—9 | 10—14 | 15—24 | 25 and over | Total | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Scarlet Fever | 1 | 8 | 11 | 51 | 10 | 4 | 1 | 86 | ||||
| Whooping Cough | 31 | 77 | 88 | 210 | 6 | – | – | 412 | ||||
| Acute Poliomyelitis:— | ||||||||||||
| Paralytic | – | 2 | – | – | 1 | – | 1 | 4 | ||||
| Non-paralytic | – | – | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 9 | ||||
| Measles | 8 | 18 | 21 | 41 | 2 | 1 | – | 91 | ||||
| Diphtheria | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | ||||
| Under 5 years | 5—14 | 15—44 | 45—64 | 65 and over | Total | |||||||
| Pneumonia:— | ||||||||||||
| Acute Primary | 1 | 5 | 3 | 15 | 10 | 34 | ||||||
| Acute Influenzal | 2 | 2 | – | 7 | 3 | 14 | ||||||
| Dysentery | 16 | 39 | 7 | 5 | – | 67 | ||||||
| Encephalitis, Acute: — | ||||||||||||
| Infective | – | 1 | – | – | – | 1 | ||||||
| Post-Infectious | – | – | – | – | – | – | ||||||
| Erysipelas | – | – | 4 | 9 | 2 | 15 | ||||||
| Meningococcal Infection | 2 | 1 | – | – | – | 3 | ||||||
| Food Poisoning | 14 | 9 | 18 | 5 | – | 46 | ||||||
| Puerperal Pyrexia | – | – | 3 | – | – | 3 | ||||||
| Ophthalmia Neonatorum | 8 | – | – | – | – | 8 | ||||||
| Paratyphoid "B" | – | 3 | 2 | 1 | – | 6 | ||||||