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FOOD POISONING
There were 2 confirmed cases. One of these was a baby of 11 months
who was admitted to hospital with a respiratory infection, vomiting and
diarrhoea. Salmonella Cholerae Suis was isolated from faecal specimens.
This was an isolated case of Salmonella Cholera Suis infection which
could not be related to food. In the other case the patient, a woman of
37 years suffered stomach pains, diarrhoea and high temperature after
eating food at a dinner dance held outside the Borough. Stool examination
revealed that she was infected with Salmonella Anaturn. This case of food
poisoning was associated with other cases which occurred after the dinner
dance. The outbreak was investigated in the area in which it occurred.
An outbreak occurred when 37 diners and staff of a Wimbledon Hotel
became ill after having eaten souffle at luncheon. Shigella Shigae, a
dysentery organism, was isolated from one sample of cooked semolina forming
the base of the souffle. Cultures on a sample of raw semolina were sterile.
No pathogenic organisms were isolated from faecal specimens taken from
members of the hotel staff.
Another outbreak occurred in a Telephone Exchange canteen when 20-30
persons became ill with sickness and diarrhoea after lunch. Samples of
food consumed that day were examined and all cultures were sterile. A
delivery of fertilisers including bone meal, for horticultural use were
delivered to the building the day before the Illness and some of this was
known to have blown into the canteen kitchen from a split bag. Cultures
from the bone meal yielded a moderate growth of an unidentified Salmonella.
This was not considered to have caused this incident as Salmonella was not
isolated from any other specimen.
DYSENTERY
27 cases of dysentery were notified compared with 1 in 1962, 1 in 1961,
17 in I960, U in 1959 and 24 in 1958. There was one main outbreak which
occurred in a school where a number of cases of diarrhoea were reported.
Following extensive bacteriological investigation 5 pupils and the mother
of one of the pupils were found to be positive for Shigella Sonnei. The
patients were put under treatment and the infection cleared up over a period
of several weeks.
There were two other family outbreaks, one involving 6 children all of
whom had symptoms of sickness and diarrhoea and were identified ae suffering
from sonne dysentery on investigation. The other small family outbreak
concerned 4 children, 3 of whom were admitted to hospital for treatment.
There was also 1 other case associated with this family outbreak in a child
of 3 years who had been in contact with this family.
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