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18
A sanitary inspector visited the premises the same day and was informed
that there were eight persons in the house ill and that three living elsewhere
were said to be affected.
The tongue in question had been bought and cooked at home on Friday, 22nd
May to be eaten the following day at a child's birthday party. Some of the
tongue however, was eaten both before and after the party by members of the
household. As far as could be ascertained during the investigation no
children ate tongue at the party. Later however, a case was reported of a
child affected but it could not be definitely established whether or not she
had eaten tongue.
The incubation period varied from 5 hours (in the case which proved fatal)
to 39 hours. The average period appeared to be 21-24 hours. The fatal case
was a man aged 62 who died 48 hours after the onset of symptoms.
The suspected tongue and faeces from the patients were submitted for
pathological examination at the Golindale Laboratories and a heavy growth of
the food poisoning organism - Salmonella Typhi Murium was reported in all
cases.
Investigation at the retail butcher's shop revealed that the tongue concerned
was one of a consignment of twelve which had been pickled for about a
week. Specimens of faeces from the staff of the butcher's shop were examined
with negative results.
The housewife stated that after being cooked by her, the tongue was
skinned and allowed to cool, at first in the kitchen and later in the front
room. It was on a dish covered with a plate all the time. The source of
infection of the tongue is a matter of conjecture,
The kitchen in which the tongue was prepared was very clean and the housewife
emphatic that no other person was concerned in the preparation of the
tongue. Later enquiries however, revealed that the day before the tongue was
bought, a cake was made with two duck eggs, always a possible source of
infection by the Salmonella Typhi Murium. It is possible that infection was
deposited on some utensil which later came into contact with the tongue.
Dysentery
There were 143 confirmed cases of Sonne dysentery and 30 cases were treated
in hospital.
School Outbreak of Sonne Dysentery
On 13th March, 1953, the assistance of the Health Department was sought
by the Head Teacher of a local private school on account of an outbreak of
dysentery in the infants department.