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34
OUTBREAK OF FOOD POISONING.
On Saturday, 26th June, a celebration party was held at a
private house in the Borough. The menu (lunch and supper)
consisted of:—
Lunch.—Chicken, potatoes and salad. Tinned apricots,
peaches and prunes.
Supper.—Fried plaice and salad. Minerals and intoxicants.
Some 37 persons were present at the party and partook of the
meals supplied there. In addition, fried fish was sent out to the
homes of some 13 friends who were unable to stay to supper.
On Monday, 28th June, information was received that three
persons, resident in Ilford, had been admitted to hospital suffering
from acute food poisoning which began a few hours after eating
the fried fish which had been sent to their homes ; and that a
family in Bethnal Green was suffering from acute gastro-enteritis
after eating fish sent from the same house.
The house where the party was held was visited immediately,
and a list was obtained of all persons who attended the party. The
Medical Officers of Health of the areas concerned were then notified.
Source of Infection.
Early in the investigation it was established that the only
article of food consumed by all infected persons was fried fish, and
that no person was affected who did not partake of the fish.
Unfortunately, by the time the first cases were brought to my
notice, all the fried fish had been consumed or destroyed, and
there was none left for chemical or bacteriological investigation.
One very baffling feature of this outbreak was that in the first
three cases reported (severe cases removed to hospital), the onset
of symptoms was as early as two hours after eating the fish—
suggestive of staphylococcal infection ; whereas in the remainder
of the cases the onset of symptoms did not occur until from 12 to 24
hours—suggestive of salmonella infection.
The fish (plaice) was supplied and cooked by a friend of the
family who has a small restaurant in London. It was dipped in
pickled hens' eggs and fried at the London restaurant on the
evening before the party. There it was kept all night, wrapped in
grease-proof paper, and transported next morning in the cook's
private motor car to the house where the party was to take place
later in the day. It was delivered at 10 a.m., stored on a table
in a back sitting-room until 8 p.m., when it was removed from
the grease-proof paper and served cold (on plates) to the assembled