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PREVALENCE AND CONTROL OF INFECTIOUS AND
OTHER DISEASES
Diphtheria
There were no cases of diphtheria in Finchley during the year.
On the 16th October a case occurred in the area of a neighbouring authority in a
boy who attended a school in Finchley. All home, class and school coach contacts
were swabbed and active and passive immunisation carried out where necessary. One
swab only was positive, a boy recently returned from Cyprus, who was a carrier and
was admitted to hospital. A prolonged incubation period of nine days, no doubt due
to the high level of immunity engendered by previous active immunisation, resulted in
the brother of the case being allowed back to school before he developed the disease on
the 25th October, and as a result all contacts had to be re-examined. No further
cases occurred and the two cases and the carrier recovered.
Dysentery
Thirty-two cases of dysentery were notified and a further 18 cases otherwise
ascertained. The causative organisms found were:—
48 shigella sonnei.
1 shigella flexner, type 2.
1 shigella boydii, type 11.
Of these, 24 were sporadic cases, the remainder being individual family outbreaks.
Food Poisoning
Six persons were notified as suffering from food poisoning during the year and in
addition seven cases were otherwise ascertained. The causative organisms identified
were as follows:—
Salmonella Stanley 1
Salmonella typhimurium 5
Staphylococci 6
Not identified 1
There were two food poisoning outbreaks. The first affected two members of a
family of three who ate the same meals, all at home, prior to the onset of the symptoms.
No specimens of the food were available. The clinical features of the cases were
severe headache, sickness and diarrhoea for a period of 48 hours duration and the
causative organism was found to be salmonella typhimurium.
The second outbreak occurred in a factory in the borough. The meal suspected
of having caused the outbreak was prepared in the factory canteen and of the 50
persons at risk, 5 were affected. The main symptoms, diarrhoea, sickness, temperature
and headache, were of moderate severity over a period of 3 days and the agent causing
11