London's Pulse: Medical Officer of Health reports 1848-1972

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Twickenham 1947

[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Twickenham]

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Public Health (Prevention of Tuberculosis) Regulations. 1925.
It was not necessary to take any action, under the above
Regulations concerning persons suffering from tuberculosis
and employed in the milk trade.
Public Health Act 1956 (Section 172)
No action was taken under this sccti6n for the
compulsory removal to hospital of persons suffering from
tuberculosis.
FOOD POISONING.
On the 15th May, 1947, a message was received from
Teddington Police Station that a mother and her small daughter
had collapsed with vomitting, diarrhoea, faintness and severe
abdominal pains. The local practitioner was called in. A
visit was at once made by an Inspector, who ascertained that
the illness appeared to have followed the consumption-of some
prepared pork sausage neat, obtained from a local retailer.
The retailer readily gave the address of the source of his
consignment, and the names and addressee of the customers he
had supplied.
A message to the wholesale firm elicited the information
that ten retailers in the Borough had been supplied with the
meat and that districts in various parts of London were affected.
The Ministry of Health require information at once when a
suspected outbreak of food poisoning occurs. The situation was
reported to the Ministry who stated that the outbreak was
widespread over the London area.
i
In the meantime every available Inspector and Health
Visitor was at once sent out to call on as many customers
who had purchased the neat as could be traced from all the shops
in the list supplied by the wholesalers. By this prompt action,
almost the whole of the neat purchased that day was retrieved.
Unfortunately it was impossible to prevent some of it from
being consumed, and although sane hundreds of people were
saved from being ill, there were twenty cases of severe food
poisoning, of whom six required to be admitted to hospital.
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