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TYPHOID FEVER. No cases of this disease were notified during the year.
PARATYPHOID FEVER. Of the three cases notified in the Borough, one was a girl of
8 who was admitted to St.Andrew's Hospital, Bow, on 19th May as a suspected case of
appendicitis. Her appendix was removed and on the 20th she started to have diarrhoea.
She was transferred to Plaistow Hospital as soon as stool culture showed that she had
paratyphoid. Further investigation showed that the infecting organism was Salmonella
Typhi-B, Phage type ?
The other two cases notified were twin boys who contracted the disease following
a visit to relatives at Bletchley. This family was admitted to hospital and investigation
showed that they were infected with paratyphoid B, Phage type Dundee. The results of
Phage typing in the two boys gave the same result and it is therefore apparent that they
acquired their infection at Bletchley and that no local source was implicated.
OUTBREAK OF PARATYPHOID IN A NEIGHBOURING BOROUGH. Between the 20th and 23rd May,
three children in a neighbouring borough became ill and were taken to hospital where they
were diagnosed as cases of paratyphoid fever. Further investigations indicated that they
had all eaten cream buns on or about the 10th May and that these had been obtained from
branches of a large bakery in West Ham. Inspection of the bakery and investigation of
some of the staff and of the egg products used in the preparation Of cream buns failed to
disclose any cause. It was, however, ascertained that cream buns supplied to the branches
which were associated with the three cases of paratyphoid had all come from a branch
bakery in another Borough. It is quite likely that the infection originated at this branch.
These three cases of paratyphoid fever were shown to have arisen from infection by
Salmonella Typhi type Taunton.
PNEUMONIA. Acute Primary and Influenzal. Eighty-four cases were notified during
the year. Registered deaths from all forms of pneumonia totalled 105. The age and sex
inoidenoe of these deaths was as follows:-
Age Groups
Male
Female
Under 5 years
8
5
5 - 14 years
-
-
15 - 44 years
1
-
45 - 64 years
2
2
65 - 74 years
27
10
75 and over
27
23
TOTAL:
65
40
Comparison of the figures with those of 1955 shows an increase in the deaths from
pneumonia in people of 65 years and over from 74 in 1955 "to 87 in 1956.
Pneumonia caused 5.9 per cent of deaths from all causes in the borough.
10