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9
Influenza
During the Autumn and Winter months there was an outbreak
of Asian Influenza. As the condition was not notifiable it is not
possible to say accurately the number of people who suffered from it,
but judging by absences from school and places of work, it seemed
that there was a very high incidence among school children and young
people, although the illness was not severe.
There was a very marked increase in the death rate among older
people however, there being 7 deaths from influenzal pneumonia
during the year as compared with 1 death for the previous year.
Smallpox
In July there was an outbreak of smallpox in Tottenham. The
disease was thought to be brought into the country by a man returning
from West Africa. He developed a slight illness and infected his
brother who later died of smallpox in a Tottenham hospital. A cleaner
working in the laboratory in which a post-mortem was carried out on
this patient developed the disease and infected her grandson, who
subsequently died from smallpox.
A suspected case was notified in this area, the patient being a
pathologist who had been present at the post-mortem on the patient
who died of smallpox in the Tottenham hospial. He had been well
vaccinated and was not ill, but as it was thought possible that he might
have a modified form of smallpox, he was removed to Longreach
Hospital, Dartford. His home contacts were strictly isolated and
vaccinated and all other contacts followed up and vaccinated.
Neighbouring local authorities were notified and informed of contacts
in their area and the local general practitioners were alerted.
Fortunately, after full investigations in hospital it was proved
that the patient was not suffering from smallpox and he was discharged
at the end of three days.
Food Poisoning
There were 11 cases of food poisoning notified during the year
and of these 8 were from two outbreaks at industrial canteens, whilst
the other 3 cases were isolated ones and no cause was found.
The details of the two outbreaks were:—
(i) 25 people became ill about four hours after lunch at the
work's canteen. The main symptoms were vomiting,
diarrhoea and abdominal pain. In most cases the illness
was slight and of short duration. All of the people affected
had eaten canned processed peas, which were served at
lunch. On investigation it was found that food samples