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Ophthalmia Neonatorum.
Thanks largely to modern chemotherapy, no case of this eye infection
in the new-born has been notified in the district since 1945.
Puerperal Pyrexia.
In keeping with previous experience, the St. Helier Hospital
provided us with the majority of notifications of a rise of temperature
during child-birth. The number of cases notified at 41 was six less
than in the year before. They were all patients in hospital except one.
Seven were residents of Carshalton. Twenty-three were in respect
of first confinements.
Food Poisoning.
One case of food poisoning was notified in a member of H.M.
Forces on leave. Illness was due to infection with Salmonella typhimurium.
There were no associated cases and the origin of the infection
was not traced. He recovered after a fortnight in hospital.
In June, a woman was admitted to hospital after collapsing in the
street. Enquiry showed that she and two other members of a family of
four fell ill some four hours after the suspected meal. The other two
patients were also admitted to hospital. All recovered in a matter of
hours and bacteriological investigation undertaken in the case of one
of them gave negative results. Commodities consumed prior to the
illness included cold boiled ham, an examination of the remnants of
which revealed a heavy growth of staphylococcus aureus-coagulase
positive. The incident had the features of poisoning by pre-formed
bacterial toxin which is the usual mode of poisoning due to this
organism.
In June, also, some 70 schoolchildren out of 300 at risk were taken
ill with symptoms of gastro-enteritis. Circumstantial evidence
pointed to the school dinner supplied approximately twelve hours
previously. Bacteriological investigation of several patients failed to
give any significant result. Similar examination of the remnants of
the meal showed that the bones from some ham which had formed
part of the meal were heavily contaminated by Cl.Welchii. Although
this organism is a normal inhabitant of the intestinal tract, the Central
Public Health Reference Laboratory reported that the strains isolated
from the ham bones gave reactions similar to those of other strains
isolated from suspected food poisoning outbreaks. All the children
recovered after about twelve hours' illness.
Hospital Treatment for Infectious Disease.
Hospital accommodation for cases of infectious disease is now the
responsibility of the Hospital Boards. Medical Officers of Health have
now no authority to require the admission of any infectious person
whatever the risk to the community. The difficulties met with by the
general practitioners in finding hospital accommodation for patients
with uncomplicated infectious illness is increasingly reflected in their
acquiescing to patients being nursed at home in conditions which are
by no means satisfactory from the point of view of isolation.
The number of cases admitted to various hospitals in the SouthWest
Metropolitan Region is shown in Table 14.
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