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63
Five cases due to the Sonne organism occurred in one household,
the illness of the first case, a boy of twelve, being followed 48 hours after
by that of his younger brother and sister. In two other households
infection had spread to two other members of the family from the original
child patient.
The cases were irregularly distributed throughout the year, there
being two single cases in March and in April, five cases in one household
in May, six cases (three in one family, two in another) in June, two in
July and one in each of the last three months of the year.
In 11 instances, including those in two families where more than one
person was affected, the organism was the Sh. Sonnei.
FOOD POISONING
Although notifications that 72 persons were suffering from food
poisoning were received during the year, a large increase over previous
years, this number is probably still only a fraction of the number of
persons who were affected by food infections.
In April 56 persons employed at a factory in this district who had a
midday meal of steak and kidney pie at the works canteen fell ill some
seven to nine hours later with diarrhoea. The meat had been cooked the
day before and had been kept at ordinary room temperature. Laboratory
examination of the faeces of one of the sufferers showed CI. Welchii.
The story of this occurrence is typical of this type of food poisoning,
where meat is cooked on one day for consumption on the next. No
notifications were received that any one of these persons was suffering
from food poisoning. This might be because, as the illness was of such
short duration, no doctors were called in.
Most of the notifications referred to one person in a household.
In 13 instances more than one member was notified, there being a second
in the household at 9, 3 in 3 households, 4 in one and 7 persons involved
in one. On many occasions though there was a history of at least one
other member of the family having suffered from similar symptoms as
the notified case, but not having been notified.
There were no months in which no occurrences were notified, there
being at least two in every month. The greatest number of instances
occurred in October with 21 cases in 15 households. The month of next
greatest frequency was May, 16 cases in 7 households. Seven households
each with one case were attacked in June and 6 households with 8 cases
in September.
In a number of cases notified, while clinically there was a gastromtestinal
upset, the cases were probably not what are considered to be
cases of food poisoning. In many patients admitted to hospital as
tions failed to confirm the diagnosis.
In few enough of the cases even of those where food poisoning
organisms were recovered from the stools could it be felt that the origin
of the illness had been detected. The possibility of detection is greater
where there is more than one case in the household, or where many who
have consumed the same meal have been attacked. In January two
Persons not resident here who had been admitted to hospital where a