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APPENDIX I
FOOD POISONING
Special Report to the Public Health Commi ttee - 3rd January, 1955.
On Wednesday, 22nd December, we were notified of four cases
of food poisoning in the same part of Wood Green, Investigations
were immediately begun, and revealed some interesting facts.
It appeared that all four cases had the same symptoms,nausea
and vomiting, diarrhoea and severe prostration. The symptoms
varied in intensity from case to case, but all four patients
appeared gravely ill, so much so that one elderly lady was admitted
to hospital during the early hours of the same morning. It
further appeared that all four patients had eaten brawn prepared
in a local butcher's shop and that their illness had begun
approximately three hours after the brawn had been eaten.
In this connection, I should like to pay a very sincere tribute
to Dr.Hancock of Arcadian Gardens. Dr. Hancock,who attended
two of the patients,suspected brawn as the vehicle of poisoning.
He therefore paid a visit at 8 a.m. to the butcher's shop in which
the brawn had been made, informing the proprietor that he was
quite sure the Public Health Department would wish to prohibit
the further sale of this product. He then informed us of his
action. The second doctor concerned, Dr. Laverick of High Road,
N. 22. was equally prompt in notifying the two cases which he was
treating, and was also able to state that they had purchased and
eaten brawn from the same shop.
Enquiries at the butcher's shop showed that approximately
10 lbs. of brawn had been made the previous day. Some 3Vi lbs. had
already been sold before Dr. Hancock visited the premises; the
remainder of the brawn was still available. Unfortunately, we
could not trace the customers or casual visitors to the butcher- s
shop who had purchased the suspected brawn, although the butcher
himself was most co -operative.By this time fresh cases were being
reported.
Contact was made with the Central Public Health Laboratory,
and arrangements concluded for sending to the Laboratory the
remainder of the brawn from the butcher's shop, specimens of
faeces and vomit from patients, and specimens of faeces and nose
swabs from the butcher and the butcher's assistant. The latter
had actually made the Drawn. I also telephoned the Ministry of
Health,explaining what had happened and asking whether the matter
was considered sufficiently serious to approach the B. B. C. I
was informed that this was not desirable in view of the presumptive
nature of the food poisoning, the fact that such a small
quantity of brawn had actually -been sold and the scare which
might develop.The Central Public Health Laboratory gave the same
advice. I did, however, telephone all Wood Green practitioners,
warning them of the cases which had occurred, and asking them to
notify us of fresh cases. My Sanitary Inspectors also canvassed
the area around the butcher's shop,in an effort to find families
where brawn had been purchased but not yet eaten.
Within forty-eight hours we had obtained reports from the
Laboratory.These showed that the brawn was heavily infected with
an organism known as the staphylococcus, which causes a type of
food poisoning which is acute but seldom of long duration. The
reports also showed that the assistant who had made the brawn
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