View report page

46
notified five days later. It was thought undesirable at that time to give a specific
bulletin to the press as it was thought that this would not be in the public interest,
and investigations into the cause of the outbreak were being actively pursued at
the time. Information was first given to the press on Thursday, the 17th November,
and the press were thereafter continually informed of all further cases. To avoid
duplication and lost time through dealing with individual newspapers, bulletins
were given to a central press agency only.
As has already been indicated the source of infection was handling of foodstuffs
by an infected individual. No hiding of this fact was indicated or attempted or
was in fact advisable or desirable. Consideration for vendors of food or any other
person must of course not be allowed to weigh against the protection of the public
health. In this instance the interests of the vendor and the public were not in
conflict.
In all there were 28 cases in the borough and 5 cases in persons resident outside
the borough whose connection with the epidemic could be traced. There were
four deaths. The age incidence of all the cases was as follows:—

Details of the confirmed cases are shown in the following table:—