Dr. S. Monckton Copeman's report to the Local Government Board on an outbreak of enteric fever in the borough of Eccles, Lancashire, due to the consumption of ice-cream.

  • Copeman, S. Monckton (Sydney Monckton), 1862-
Date:
1911
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Dr. S. Monckton Copeman's report to the Local Government Board on an outbreak of enteric fever in the borough of Eccles, Lancashire, due to the consumption of ice-cream. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    available at the Salford Sanatorium became very great, and at one period the medical superintendent was forced to request Dr. Hamilton not to send in any further cases for a short time, pending arrange- ments for the provision of further accommodation. The Salford Corporation certainly did everything in their power to assist the Eccles Town Council to tide over the crisis, and as regards hospital accommodation, informed the chairman of the sanitary committee that they would be prepared, at a few hours’ notice, to allow the use of their new hospital (not yet opened at the time of my first visit) for patients from Eccles, should it prove impossible to provide the necessary accommodation at the sanatorium. So soon as it appeared certain that the causation of the epidemic had been determined, Dr. Hamilton drew up a warning notice against the eating of ice-cream, which, printed in red ink on bills of large size, was soon posted in prominent positions in various parts of the town. Hand-bills as to “ Rules for preventing the spread of enteric or typhoid fever,” “ Caution to householders against the commission of acts by which infectious disease may be spread,” and “ Suggestions for preventing the spread of infectious disease,” with particular reference to the supply and use of special pails for the reception of typhoid excreta, were also distributed from door to door in the infected area of the town. Among other routine preventive measures adopted, it may be mentioned that the water-closets and drains of all houses in which a case of enteric fever occurred were treated with a disinfectant solution, the special pails, referred to above, being also supplied in those instances in which the patient was not removed to hospital. The closets and drains of the Parish Church schools and the Clarendon Road council schools were also disinfected. The privy-middens of two of the few remaining houses not yet connected with the sewerage system, from which cases were notified, were cleansed, and the midden pits disinfected as thoroughly as possible, having regard to the structural difficulties involved. Eccles Parish Church schools were closed by order of the health committee from November 22nd to December 5th, 1910. Shops in connection with dwellings in which cases occurred were also required to close until further notice, while in three instances a supply of “ sweets ” which came under suspicion was removed and destroyed, compensation being subsequently made to the shop- keeper by the town council. “ Contacts ” working in laundries, or in shops or other places where articles of food were handled, were kept from work for a period of a fortnight. While as yet it remained uncertain as to whether either water or milk might be concerned in the spread of the disease, the water supply to the fountain on Eccles Cross was turned off, and house- holders were warned to boil any water or milk they might use for drinking purposes. The medical officer of health also sent to each milk vendor in the borough a copy of a circular letter, in which he requested them to take steps to ensure that, while the epidemic lasted,^ no cans should be taken into houses, in order to avoid possible risk of infection being transferred by this means,