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(For purposes of classification, an "outbreak" means two or more
related cases in persons of different families; a "family outbreak"
means two or more related cases in members of the same family;
and a "sporadic case" means a case which was not, as far as could
be ascertained, related to other cases.)
The number of cases in which no bacterial or chemical cause
was found was six, whereas the bacterial cause was found in
14 cases.
In the "family outbreak involving four persons, the organism
isolated was staphylococcus, and the article of food considered to be
responsible was spam.
One "outbreak" involved four nurses in a large hospital, the
bacterial cause being salmonella typhi-murium. After an interval
of five months, two additional cases occurred in the nursing staff
of the same hospital. In one, salmonella Tennessee was isolated,
whereas no organism was isolated in the other.
Of the 12 single and sporadic cases, six were found to be due to
salmonella infection, and in the remaining six cases no bacterial
cause was found.