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age. This occurrence was a repetition of what had happened in the household
six months before. Another family grouping occurred in March
when a boy of three fell ill ; later his brother and mother succumbed.
Later in the year, the illness of a boy of eight was followed by that of four
members of his family. While most often the sequel was infection of a
school child followed by infection at home, of which there seemed to be
in all five such instances, in one the sequence was that of infection of an
adult who had many meals out being followed by the infection of a school
child, and in another the infection of an adult who was a housekeeper and
was not notified, was followed by infection of another adult. The remaining
cases were each the only members of the family infected. From twelve of
them the Sonnei organism was recovered.
The spread of this infection in a household points to lapses in standards
of food hygiene. Amongst the special steps which can be taken at
school are the cleaning and disinfection of the lavatories ; special attention
being given to the routine of hand-washing; paper towels replacing roller
towels. Some recommend that all children regularly dip their hands in a
bowl of quaternary ammonium disinfectant.
FOOD POISONING
The thirty-one cases of food poisoning notified in 1959 was a marked
decline on the incidence in recent years. This last year the same number of
cases were notified. In very few instances were food poisoning organisms
found in the stools of those affected, and in many cases where more than
one person was involved, the history was much more suggestive of a food
infection than a food poisoning.
There were eight occurrences where more than one member of the
family was affected. From none of the specimens of stools submitted for
laboratory investigations were food poisoning organisms recovered ; nor
those of the food infections. Nineteen persons were affected in these
incidents. In all but two of the occurrences, only two members of the
family were involved. Of the other two, three were infected in one and
four in the other, the members of the family succumbing at intervals up
to six days. In those instances where only two were involved, the onsets of
illness were separated by three to five days, except in the one case where
there was a simultaneous onset. In this case two members of the family
affected had an article of food—tongue sandwich—which seemed to be
°ff"; the other members of the family did not have this food and
remained well.
Of the single cases notified, two were people who had probably
contracted the infection at a Works Canteen out of the district, others
who consumed meals there also falling ill with the same symptoms,
Salmonella was recovered from the stools of one of these patients. A
child of two years of age from whom S. Heidelberg was recovered had
Probably contracted the infection while on a visit to Holland. From an
adult patient S. typhimurium was recovered ; the food suspected in this
case wassausage. From the others in this group, no food poisoning