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Dysentery.
There was a decrease in the incidence of Sonne dysentery, 116 cases
being notified, as compared with 147 cases last year.
The Ministry of Health points out that notifications in 1955 reached
the highest total ever recorded, but that due to more laboratory investigations
in recent years, symptomless excreters of the organisms have come
to the fore, and this may to some extent explain the increase in notifications.
Erysipelas.
During the year eight notifications were received.
Food Poisoning - Delay in Notification.
Of 8,961 cases of food poisoning in England and Wales recorded in the
1955 Report of the Chief Medical Officer of the Ministry of Health, 5,269
were found or presumed to be caused by Salmonella organisms. In 3,447
cases it was not possible to identify either the food eaten or the food
poison germ infecting it. Early notification to the medical officer of
health by doctors and hospitals is essential if the causal agent is to be
discovered. Unfortunately many cases of food poisoning are not notified
and others are notified too late to trace the cause.
Rather than wait until the diagnosis is confirmed it is better to
notify at once as "suspected food poisoning". It is seldom possible to
trace the cause without bacteriological examination of the meal partaken,
and to secure the remains of the meal before it is destroyed it is necessary
for the health inspector to visit within a few hours.
During the year there were 40 known cases of suspected food poisoning
in the Borough, of which 22 were officially notified. There were no deaths.
In nine cases a Salmonella was isolated from the patient's stool but in no
case was the source of infection traced to any article of food. One group
of cases related to four hospital nurses infected with Salmonella typhimurium.
It was considered that the suspected food might have been homemade
pastries made from egg products, either Australian liquid whole egg,
Chinese hen-egg albumen or English liquid whole egg; but when these egg
products were bacteriologically examined Salmonella typhi-murium was not
found.
An outbreak not officially notified occurred among some cadets who
breakfasted at a hostel outside Stepney and lunched at a school dinner
centre in Stepney. Seventeen cadets were affected with stomach pains
and diarrhoea.
Only seventeen of the 54 cadets at risk were affected, and none of
the teachers or children of the school, and it is therefore unlikely that
the school meal was the source of the trouble. The cause of the outbreak
was not ascertained. Examination of the excreta of the cadets and the
kitchen staff gave negative results.
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