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ship which is so essential between the Public Health Services and
local hospitals. It also gives the Medical Officer of Health the
opportunity of seeing at first-hand conditions which prevail in
hospital kitchens and, when invited to do so, to make suggestions.
In all, five cases of food poisoning and 32 cases of dysentery
were reported in 1957, as against 18 and 76 respectively during
the previous year, I must again stress that these figures are of
very little value except for purposes of comparison, as we know
that many cases of food poisoning and dysentery never come to our
notice.
Many of the cases of dysentery reported occurred among Boy
Scouts using Scout Park as a transit camp. On the 6th August we
were informed that a Swiss boy had been admitted to hospital
suffering from diarrhoea. Within the next forty-eight hours a
further nine boys were admitted to Coppetts Wood Hospital.
Laboratory examinations showed these boys to be suffering from
sonne dysentery. Faece specimens were immediately taken from all
the remaining boys in the Swiss troop. Ten of these specimens
were reported positive As a result seven more boys were
treated in hospital.
Arrangements were made to visit the Camp at least once daily
in order to issue the necessary advice and to supervise the hygiene,
with particular emphasis on hand-washing. A plentiful supply of
disinfectant was provided All the boys in the troop were also
given treatment designed to destroy the organisms which they might
be presumed to be carrying The entire troop including those
boys and young men who had been treated in hospital and who had
made a rapid and complete recovery were allowed to leave on the
13th August.
I wrote to the Medical Officer of the Swiss Canton in which
the boys resided, supplying full details of what had happened and
what had been done. I subsequently received a courteous reply
thanking us for our attention and for the information contained
in my letter.
Paratyphoid Fever
No cases of paratyphoid were reported in 1957,
Puerperal Pyrexia
Two cases of puerperal pyrexia were notified during the year.
Both cases made an uneventful recovery.
Small pox
No case of smallpox occurred during 1957. The year 1957,
however, did see the occurrence of three cases of smallpox in the
neighbouring Borough of Tottenham, This produced 28 Wood Green
contacts, none of them fortunately, close contacts of the
Tottenham cases. It was,however, necessary to keep these contacts
under the closest surveillance and to ensure that should ®. case
arise the necessary steps to prevent spread of the disease could
be taken without delay It was also necessary to request the
services of the smallpox consultant for the Area on one occasion.
I would take the opportunity here of expressing my sincere
thanks to the Public Health Inspectors, who did a great deal of
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