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The second and third cases are interesting. This was a small family outbreak of husband
and wife being affected. The story was that they and a friend were at the house of a second
friend, were smitten with violent stomach pains, followed rapidly by vomiting and diarrhoea.
This happened at 3 30 in the afternoon on investigation it was found that about 3 hours prev
iously these three people had had a meal which included cold chicken salad. The chicken in
question had been roasted two days previously and left in a food cupboard in the kitchen until
taken out for slicing in the preparation of the lunch. The fat in which the chicken had been
cooked was found to be heavily contaminated with staphylococci and the female patient was found
to have numerous staphylococci in her nose. Cold chicken can be dangerous The second family
outbreak (cases forming Item 6) was due to the reheating of cooked beef. In these cases there
was vomiting as well as stomach pains and diarrhoea. The meat was cooked on the Saturday night
and for lunch on Sunday, the father and the two children had the meat warmed, while the mother
had it cold; all the family had gravy. On bacteriological examination both the beef and gravy
were found to be grossly contaminated with Clostridia Welchii, a bacillius with heat resistant
spores, Reheated meat is even more dangerous than cold cooked meat. The third family outbreak
was due to the same spore bearing bacillius. In this case the vehicle was pork which had been
roasted on the Saturday and consumed cold on Sunday and on Monday. The symptoms were again
vomiting and diarrhoea coming on in the late afternoon. In the three separate Salmonella TyphiMurium
cases no food stuff could be incriminated nor could the disease be traced to personal
contacts with another infected person.
PNEUMONIA
57 cases were notified during the year.
POLIOMYELITIS
7 confirmed cases of Poliomyelitis were notified during the year. The first was in a man
of 46 who developed a paralysis of the face, in the middle of March. The second was a boy of 7
years who developed a paralysed leg on the 20th of June and the third was a boy of 5 years, who
lived within ½mile of the previous boy. He was more fortunate, since his symptoms were mainly
headache and sleepiness and discomfort of the neck the final diagnosis in this case was non
paralytic Poliomyelitis. The symptoms in this last case developed about the 13th of July. On
the 19th of July a girl of 5 years complained of weakness of the legs and was listless and had
fever; this case also was diagnosed as non paralytic Poliomyelitis. On the 9th of August a girl
of 9 years who attended the school next door to that attended by the third case complained of
headache; this case was confirmed as non paralytic Poliomyelitis. On the 19th of August a boy
of 2 years living not far from the fourth case (the girl of 5) developed pain in the left leg
and started to limp; he was found to be suffering from paralytic Poliomyelitis. On the 28th of
August a girl of 11½ living near the Enfield boundary complained of headache, sore throat
nausea and aching legs; she had some fever and her family doctor put her to bedr she was kept
in bed for five days and all her symptoms having subsided, was then allowed to get up On the
4th of September however,, she complained of pain in her right leg and was found to have a very
slight paralysis of the right thigh. This patient subsequently recovered fully.
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