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57 cases of food poisoning or suspected food poisoning: and of that number 820
related to measles, 254 to sonne dysentery, 4 to flexner dysentery, 179 to
scarlet fever and 121 to puerperal pyrexia. Apart from puerperal pyrexia, of
which 117 cases occurred in hospital, some 178 cases of infectious diseases
were admitted to hospital for treatment: of the 179 cases of scarlet fever,
only 29 cases received hospital treatment.
For the fifth year in succession there was no case of diphtheria, and in
fact, since 1951 only one case has occurred in this borough. Of the 13
persons admitted to hospital suspected to be suffering from poliomyelitis, the
diagnosis was confirmed in two cases only, and both were of the paralytic type.
Vaccination against poliomyelitis has for some time now been available to
children aged six months to fifteen years, and to specific categories such as
expectant mothers, doctors, ambulance staff, and certain hospital staff whose
duties are likely to bring them into contact with the disease. During the
year under review, this protection was extended to cover persons up to 26 years.
The Department co-operated fully with the staff of Division 4 of the County
Council in its endeavour to get as many eligible persons as possible protected.
The County Council in its capacity as Local Health Authority is responsible for
all immunisation, and I am informed that a total of 14, 133 persons in the
various eligible groups were vaccinated during 1958 against poliomyelitis.
The three deaths from infectious diseases were of cases of pneumonia in
persons aged 65 and over,
Sonne dysentery appears to be chronically endemic, and of the 254 cases
notified only 23 were associated with day nurseries. The remaining cases were,
in the main, sporadic, and there appears to be no common source of origin for
this disease. The two cases of infective encephalitis, and the one case of
this disease following chicken pox, all made satisfactory recoveries.
Tuberculosis. Of the 119 cases of tuberculosis notified for the first time,
112 were in respect of pulmonary disease, and seven non-pulmonary Persons to
the number of 18 died from this disease, and in addition, there were 17 deaths
from other causes of persons on our tuberculosis register The tuberculosis
death rate per thousand of the population for Hackney was 0.11 as compared with
a rate of 0.10 for England and Wales. Vaccination against tuberculosis is the
responsibility of the County Council as Local Health Authority, and I am
informed that B.C.G vaccination was administered by the County Council to some
1,297 children aged 13 years, and in addition, 129 contacts of the disease were
vaccinated by chest physicians.
Inspection and Supervision of Food The most important piece of food
legislation was the Food Hygiene (Amendment) Regulations, 1957, which came into
operation on 31st December, 1957, Under the 1955 Regulations the preparation
and handling of food in domestic premises was prohibited, but a temporary
exemption was given for the peeling of onions and shrimps. The amending
Regulations now provide that these two occupations can only be carried out in
domestic premises where such premises are registered under the provisions of
Section 16 of the Pood and Drugs Act, 1955. This matter is of some importance
in this borough, by reason of the fact that there exists a large pickle factory,
and the management rely largely on outworkers for their onion peeling. As a
result of close liaison between this Department and the firm concerned, a Code
of Practice relating to minimum hygienic standards in regard to the outworker
and his premises was agreed and put into operation. Some thirteen onion
peeling premises were registered. It appears from the Ministry's circular
which accompanied the new Regulations that the Minister considers these
arrangements to be of a temporary nature, and it is hoped that the manufacturers
concerned will make adequate arrangements for onion peeling to take place in
their own factory premises Under Section 16 of the Act, it has been the
practice for this borough to register, in addition to premises used for the
storage, manufacture, and/or sale of ice cream, only premises used for the
preservation of meat, manufacture of sausages, fish curing, manufacture of meat