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INFECTIOUS DISEASES
Foreign travel continues to make a significant contribution to the amount of infectious disease
encountered in the Borough. It might be less if travel agents devoted a small proportion of the time
and effort they spend on extolling the holidays they provide to informing the public about the health
hazards they might encounter, and how to avoid them.
Diphtheria
A resident in the Borough was a contact of a case of diphtheria in another local authority area.
A Schick test showed that he had not acquired any immunity to the disease, but three throat swabs
were negative and he was declared free of infection.
Dysentery
That elusive and widespread infection, sonnei dysentery, continued to present a problem
throughout the year. Generally this is a mild disease, but on one occasion it presented a more
vicious aspect and caused an explosive outbreak at a primary school involving twenty children.
This was brought under control by excluding cases and imposing strict hygiene measures while it
lasted. An adult foodhandler employed locally also caught the infection from the children, and was
excluded from work and compensated for loss of income until clear of the disease.
Exclusion and compensation were also necessary at another time in the case of a street trader
in fruit and vegetables, with no access to hand-washing facilities while at work, until his symptomless
carrier state had cleared up.
Food Poisoning
This remains a considerable problem. Salmonella typhimurium was the commonest culprit, being
involved in seven episodes. In one of these seven members of a family were affected. In another
the organism appeared unexpectedly when the individual was being followed up as a contact of
another disease, typhoid fever, while staying at a hotel in Tunisia. Fortunately typhimurium was all
that was found.
Salmonella enteritidis occurred three times, and in one of the cases was suspected to be
associated with spit-roasted chickens - a frequent source of food poisoning nowadays.
Other organisms in the Salmonella group encountered during the course of the year were
eastbourne, oranienburg, panama and Stanley.
The Health Department has been taking a close interest in a new but not insignificant source of
food poisoning. Incidents have been reported from other boroughs in which the infections in humans,
usually children, have been traced to terrapins - semi-aquatic turtles - imported from abroad.
These unfortunate reptiles, which are most unlikely to get in this country the kind of care from their
owners which would enable them to live for more than a few weeks, are frequently bred in large
numbers and in grossly unhygienic conditions, infecting many of the creatures and the water they live
in. A child playing with a terrapin or its tank is then liable to catch the disease. This happened
in a neighbouring borough, a Paratyphoid B battersea organism being the cause, and enquiry showed
that the animal had been in a batch brought into the country by an importer in Haringey.
The Health Department has a duty to inspect pet shops, and this has now been extended to
include bacteriological sampling of terrapin tanks. Twice Salmonella mikawasima has been isolated
from specimens, but by the time the information reached us the terrapins had been sold. Subsequently
Salmonella Paratyphoid B battersea was found in a container of six terrapins in another shop.
Investigation showed that two of them were chronic carriers. The same organism also turned up in
another pet shop, and it was discovered that the terrapins belonged to the same batch imported from
abroad. No information has reached the Department of illness from any of these, but the possibility
cannot be excluded as the disease can be mild and may produce only a mild colic.
The Health Department will continue to take routine samples of any terrapins that come to its
notice; but it is to be hoped that the general public will learn to curb their passion for these exotic
animals, or at least to transfer their attention to the well-tried field of tropical fish.
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