London's Pulse: Medical Officer of Health reports 1848-1972
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Hints from the Health Department. Leaflet from the archive of the Society of Medical Officers of Health. Credit: Wellcome Collection, London
Hackney 1959
[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Hackney]
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was braised liver, and in the second case was meat which had been
cooked the previous day and re-heated by pouring warm gravy over it
it had also been stored under unsatisfactory refrigerated conditions.
In both outbreaks the symptoms were of moderate severity but the
duration of the illness was short
(c) Single cases: A positive organism was identified in 44 of the 45
individual notified cases
Details of the bacteriological findings in the 50 positive cases are as follows:-
| Organism | All ages | Under 1 year | 1 - 2 years | 2 - 3 years | 3 4 years | 4 - 5 years | 5-10 years | 10 - 15 years | 15 - 20 years | 20 - 35 years | 35 - 45 years | 45 - 65 years | 65 and over |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Salmonella Anatum | 3 | 3 | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - |
| Salmonella Bredeney | 1 | - | - | - | - | - | 1 | - | - | - | - | - | - |
| Salmonella Enteriditis | 1 | - | - | - | - | - | - | 1 | - | - | |||
| Salmonella Munchen | 2 | 1 | - | - | - | - | 1 | - | - | - | |||
| Salmonella Newport | 7 | 5 | - | - | - | - | - | - | 1 | 1 | - | ||
| Salmonella Thompson | 1 | - | 1 | - | - | ||||||||
| Salmonella typhimurium | 35 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 2 | - | 7 | 2 | 6 | 4 | 5 | 3 | |
| Totals | 50 | 11 | 1 | 3 | 2 | - | 8 | 4 | 9 | 4 | 5 | 3 |
SECTION 27 (Inspection and control of infected food). If the Medical Officer
of Health of a district has reasonable ground for suspecting that any food of
which he, or any other officer of the local authority of the district, has
procured a sample under the provisions of this Act is likely to cause food
poisoning, he may give notice to the person in charge of the food that, until
his investigations are completed, the food, or any specified portion thereof,
is not to be used for human consumption, and either is not to be removed, or
is not to be removed except to some place specified in the notice No action
was necessary under this section
SECTION 29 (Milk and Dairies Regulations)
(a) MILK AND DAIRIES (GENERAL) REGULATIONS, 1959 These regulations made
under Sections 29, 30 and 87 of the pood and Drugs Act, 1955, and operative
from the 8th March, 1959, re-enact with amendments, the Milk and Dairies
Regulations, 1949 to 1954. The regulations require local authorities to
keep a register of persons carrying on the trade of distributor at or from
premises within their district (whether or not such premises are occupied by
the distributor) and of premises within their district which are used as
dairies, not being dairy farms, and to remove from such register the name
of any person who ceases so to trade and the address of any premises which
cease to be so used
The following are among a number of changes made:-
(i) The definition of "notifiable disease" has been amended by the
inclusion of "food poisoning" (see also section 26 of the Food and
Drugs Act, 1955) and the omission of "dysentery" This disease
became a notifiable disease by virtue of the Public Health
(Infectious Diseases) Regulations, 1953, which were made under the
Public Health Act, 1936