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5. Origin and Preparation of Food causing Illness
In all but two of the original cases, a common factor emerged
ALL had eaten cakes and (or) bread purchased directly from the Bakery
or from one of the branch shops in the district. Very many cafes and
Public Houses in the area also receive supplies from the Bakery.
6. Place at which food causing illness was consumed:-
In the private homes of patients, also at a Cripples' School.
Estimated Number of Consumers at Risk
Impossible to say, as the Bakery firm concerned has a number of
branches locally and also supplies shops, restaurants, cafes and firms
throughout the area.
(If the firm supply around 40,000 of the Edmonton population (which
would be a reasonable estimate), an estimate of the number of infections
would be in the region of 1 in 200 or 1 in 600 of those at risk).
7. Probable Origin of Infection or Contamination of Food
All investigations pointed to the infection arising from a bakery
firm. When specimens were taken from all members of the bakery staff,
the staffs of branch shops and from the vanmen, it was found that an
apprentice-baker and a female packer of cakes (occasionally of bread)
were positive for Salmonella typhl-murium yet symptom-free. A female
assistant at a branch shop across the road from the bakery was likewise
a symptomatic but harbouring Salmonella typhi-murium in her faeces.
A mother and daughter employed as part-time counter hands at another
of the branch shops, had previously had symptoms, and both were positive
for Salmonella typhi-murium.
The trainee-baker, a boy of fifteeen, had only recently joined
the firm. One month previous to this, he had suffered from a febrile
headache which might well have been a Salmonella typhi-murium bacteraemia.
On joining the firm he was given various tasks including packing
cakes into trays, squirting jam and cream into pastry and sticking cherries
onto buns and cakes. He was also responsible for washing down the
bakery benches (tables) etc. (common trays may have been used for pastries
and bread).
Contributory Factors:
(a) The personal standards of hygiene practised by the apprenticebaker
particularly in post-defaecation toilet. His method of washing
his hands was to run them under a tap then wash them with one of the
half-dozen cloths (rags) used to wash down the baking benches at the end
of the day.