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Puerperal Pyrexia.
The revised definition of this disease contained in the Puerperal Pyrexia
Regulations made in 1951, has accounted for the increase in notifications received,
there being 48 cases compared with 31 during the previous year.
Any case occurring in a hospital in the Borough is notified to me as required
by the Regulations, and not to the Medical Officer of Health in the area in which
the patient normally resides, although several such cases, of course, relate to
mothers normally resident within the Borough. All except five of the notifications
were received from the largest maternity hospital in the Borough.
Puerperal pyrexia must not be confused with puerperal fever. The condition
puerperal pyrexia is an increase of temperature in accordance with the definition,
following childbirth. The causes of such an increase are many and often trivial.
The disease puerperal fever is a bacterial infection of the genital tract associated
with childbirth.
Pneumonia.
Of the various forms of pneumonia, only acute primary and acute influenzal
pneumonia are notifiable infectious diseases. The number of cases occurring
during the year was 123, being slightly less than the number notified during the
previous year. Deaths from pneumonia totalled 85, against 100 in 1951.
Dysentery.
The thirty cases of dysentery occurred mostly in private families, and there
were no major outbreaks of the disease. Each notified case was carefully investigated
by the Health Department staff and an officer of the department obtained
faecal specimens for examination from each patient and from contacts of the
patient. Fifty such specimens were analysed, and in those cases where the result
was positive the patient's doctor arranged for further treatment.
Food Poisoning.
During the year 20 confirmed cases of food poisoning were notified. These
included four small outbreaks, each outbreak being confined to an individual family
and involving a total of 11 persons. In two of the outbreaks the food suspected as
causing the poisoning was plums, a member of two different families having eaten
stewed plums just prior to illness. None of the patients was seriously ill.
Sheep's heart, obtained from the family butcher, was the food suspected as
causing another small outbreak of food poisoning. The food had been bought
from the butcher on the Wednesday morning, had been cooked the following day
and then stored in a saucepan overnight to be re-heated on the Friday for lunch
that day. Two members of the family who had eaten the greater portion of the
sheep's heart had been ill. It was not possible to obtain a specimen of the food
suspected.
There were 11 single cases of food poisoning reported by General Practitioners.
In the case of one family ducks eggs left in mistake for hens eggs by a tradesman
were suspected as causing the illness. One of the eggs had been lightly boiled
and the patient was caused some discomfort. The Laboratory examination disclosed
that the illness was due to salmonella typhimurium.
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