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39
employees at the factory at which the infected food was made, and it
was considered that he was probably one of the victims. The last of the
doubtful cases was that of a man in whom the laboratory findings again
were inconclusive.
The refinements of today's laboratory examinations increase the
likelihood of the source of the infection in any patient being discovered,
but that will be only when the laboratory findings are quite definite.
DYSENTERY
Seven patients were notified as suffering from dysentery, two of
them being members of the same family. It is probable that the actual
incidence of dysenteric infection is far greater than the number of patients
notified as suffering from the complaint.
FOOD POISONING
Only five patients were notified as suffering from food poisoning;
from each of these S. typhi-murium was recovered. One case, that of a
man, proved fatal. Two patients were small children in the one family;
the other two notifications were children of three and four months of age.
ERYSIPELAS
Only 22 notifications of persons suffering from erysipelas were
received this year. Half the cases occurred in the first quarter of the
year; most of the rest occurred in October. This year the sexes were
nearly equally affected. As has been the case in recent years, again in
the vast majority the site of lesion was the face. Six patients were removed
to hospital.
CEREBRO SPINAL FEVER
Six persons suffered from meningococcal infection during the year.
The first case was a boy of 18 months who fell ill in March ; the next
boy of three who succumbed in April; and the third was an adult notified
in June.. After a lull of some months the next infection was a girl of 17,
in September, and then a baby of 11 months, in December. All recovered.
ACUTE ANTERIOR POLIOMYELITIS
The infection in the country of the summer and autumn, 1949,
declined in incidence towards the end of the year, but did not disappear.
In the early weeks of 1950 the average number of notifications each week
was over 50, and the lowest incidence, an average weekly notification of
20, was not reached until April. The 1950 outbreak started at the end of
May.
The position in the country as a whole was reflected locally. There
was a case early in January, another fatal case late in January, and then
another, also a fatal case, in March. Then followed a lull until the disease
was diagnosed in June in a person who had probably contracted infection
outside the district. Later in the same month the first locally contracted
case was diagnosed, an abortive infection. The first case in which paralysis
occurred was at the end of July. August yielded seven cases, one
being fatal. Then followed the heavy invasion of 16 cases, in September,