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Recent research into the spread of Sonne Dysentery shows that this disease is
most easily spread when humidity is high, the temperature low, and there is a lack
of sunlight, a combination of circumstances not uncommon in school lavatories.
Food Poisoning.
Twentyseven notifications of food poisoning were received during 1957, three
more than in 1956.
The cases were distributed throughout the year as follows:-
First Quarter. Second Quarter. Third Quarter. Fourth Quarter. Total.
13 4 5 5 27
In ten cases the organism was identified as salmonella typhi-murium and one as
salmonella dublin. Eight cases occurred in an old persons home, for which no definite
cause was found; the remainder of the cases were reported in different families
scattered throughout the Borough.
A report that food poisoning germs are common in bone meal, dried sludge and
certain fertilisers, led to an enquiry into the possible association between cases
of food poisoning and the use of organic fertilisers, but no case was traced to this
source.
Paratyphoid Fever.
Five cases of paratyphoid fever were notified during the year compared with six
in 1956. These were isolated cases and were spread throughout the Borough with no
common source of infection.
Two of the patients had returned to this country from holidays abroad just prior
to notification, another had been on holiday at the seaside.
Influenza.
An outbreak of Asian influenza occurred in October, 1957. The highest illness
attack rates were in school children, of whom some two-thirds were ill. About a
quarter of the pre-school children and of young adults had the disease, and a lower
proportion of older adults, The first case was reported in Hendon on the 9th
September.
Diphtheria.
No case of diphtheria was notified during the year.
The following table shows the number of cases and the deaths from diphtheria
since immunisation was introduced on a large scale in 1935.
27