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9
Roast Mutton,
Onion sauce,
Potatoes,
Greens,
Gravy,
Suet Pudding with dates and currants,
Syrup sauce.
The onset of symptoms was from 4 to 18 hours after
this meal had been eaten. Several members of the kitchen
staff were affected the following day after eating the
roast mutton cold. It was therefore necessary to condemn
the meal which they were in the process of preparing, and
emergency measures were taken for feeding children served
by this particular kitchen.
Every effort was made to trace the source of infection.
Specimens of the suspected meal were sent for bacteriological
examination but no organism was isolated,
Similarly stool specimens from those affected yielded
negative results, Enquiries were extended to the butcher
supplying the meat, and in order to eliminate the possibility
of chemical poisoning the use of cleaning materials
and insecticide spray in the kitchen was investigated.,
The symptoms did not suggest that either Salmonella,
Staphylococci, or C1. welchii caused the infection, and
the absence of secondary cases ruled out Winter Vomiting".
It may be that the outbreak was due to an agent hitherto
unrecognised as a cause of food poisoning, or that the
bacteria responsible may have been overgrown by nonpathogenic
organisms.
At the same time as reporting an outbreak of this nature
it is appropriate to record how infrequently such instances
occur, due unquestionably to the very high standard of
food hygiene observed by the School Meals Service,
INFLUENZA.
During the Spring extensive outbreaks of Influenza
occurred in the Far East and by the summer a small number
of cases had been imported into the United Kingdom to
produce localised outbreaks. The first definite evidence
of spread was noted in the North of England where in the
week-ending August 24th a large number of children were
absent from school. By the contribution week-ending September
3rd, new claims for sickness benefit on the Ministry
of Pensions and National Insurance were extensive in the
North of England, and by the week-ending September 14th