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9
These comprised 12 Salmonella Typhimurium, and one each
of the Salmonella Enteriditis, Salmonella Senftenberg and Salmonella
Aberdeen.
On one occasion 45 employees using the canteen of a well
known firm in the Borough complained to their Staff Nurse of
having symptoms of diarrhoea and vomiting, and this illustrates
well the procedure and conscientious work of the Sanitary Inspectors
in the investigation of a Food Poisoning outbreak.
Within an hour of the Canteen Manageress informing us a
Sanitary Inspector visited the firm and took full details—number
of cases involved, with names and addresses, departments in which
they worked, times of meals in the canteen and what they consisted
of and the time of onset of symptoms and the severity in each case.
This information was examined and pinpointed two trays of
particular food at one lunch time sitting as being the cause.
The next day the Medical Officer of Health visited the firm
with the Sanitary Inspector and full particulars were taken
concerning the reception, storage, preparation and cooking of the
dish concerned. As so often happens there was none of the suspected
food left over and 15 specimens of faeces from the patients and
canteen staff proved negative. However, the canteen management
were co-operative and helpful and night and morning samples were
taken daily for 10 days of certain stews, sauces, soups and stockpots
and were sent for examination to the local pathological
laboratory. Scrapings from containers were also examined for the
presence of pathogenic bacteria and samples sent to the Public
Analyst for detection of inorganic poisons.
All this involved twice daily visiting for a period of two weeks.
Although no cause was found there is good reason to hope that
the excellent work done by the staff of the Chief Sanitary Inspector,
with the willing co-operation of the firm concerned, and the Public
Health Laboratory, will prove of inestimable value, in future
investigation into outbreaks of possible Food Poisoning.
The outbreak was brought under control within a few days of
its appearance.
Malaria.
There was one case of Malaria, a man of 37 years who had
recently returned from the Gold Coast. He was admitted to the
Hospital for Tropical Diseases.
Measles.
The incidence of this disease dropped to 132 notifications in
1954 from 2,568 in 1953.