View report page

39.
was general throughout the country —in week-ended March 17
the national figure was 31,837, as compared with the previous
highest of 25,507 in week-ended March 24, 1945. Stepney's
previous highest figure was 1,127 for the year 1949,
the figure for 1950 being 504. There were no deaths from
the disease.
Paratyphoid.
Two small outbreaks of Paratyphoid B, consisting of 9
cases, occurred in Stepney in the months of June and July.
The first case was a Child, J .B., aged 1-7A2 years, who
became ill on 10th June and was admitted to a local general
hospital "A" on 14th June. The second Case was a nurse,
C.E., who nursed J .B., and who became ill on 27th June.
About the same time, in another general hospital "B"
in the Borough, six young nurses residing in the nurses'
home became ill with paratyphoid -
J.W.
S.G.
M.Br.
Onset 22nd June
" 24th "
" 24th "
M.Be.
D.L.
B.P.
Onset 25th June
" 29th "or
1st July
" 5th "
and on 3rd July a wardmaid, J.G.
Enquiry failed to show a connection between the two
outbreaks.
Cultures from the seven cases in hospital "B" were
submitted to the Central Reference Laboratory at Colindale,
and all were found to belong to the strain "Kent". It was
not possible to identify the strain in the two cases of
hospital "A". The Widal blood test of Nurse C.E. gave
agglutination for Paratyphoid B, but no organism was
obtained from the bowel. A culture of Paratyphoid B was
obtained from the child J.B., but was not available for
V-phage typing. Both cases were undergoing treatment with
antibiotics, and subsequent attempts to obtain cultures
failed. It was not possible to trace the source of infection
of either outbreak, and no further cases occurred.
Pneumonia.
Of the various forms of pneumonia, only acute primary
and acute influenzal are notifiable. 97 cases were notified
during the year, compared with 6l last year.