[Report 1964] / Medical Officer of Health, St Albans R.D.C.

  • St. Albans (England). Rural District Council.
Date:
1964
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1964] / Medical Officer of Health, St Albans R.D.C. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    PREVALENCE OF AND CONTROL OVER INFECTIOUS DISEASES ST.ALBANS RURAL DISTRICT Scarlet Fever Whooping Cough Measles Food Poisoning Infective Hepatitis Dysentery- Erysipelas Puerperal Pyrexia Acute Encephalitis (Post infectious) Paratyphoid Fever 179 11 8 3 7 16 3 2 1 1 Food Poisoning There w■?re three cases of food poisoning reported during the year. The first case was a Salmonella typhi-murium in a young lady who had been abroad for her holidays - she became ill whilst abroad and it appears that this illness was contracted on the Continent. The second case was another young woman who had a Salmonella brandenburg infection, and the third case was a man with a Salmonella bredeney infection. In spite of intensive investigations, in the last two cases, no source of infection was found nor were any of their contacts infected. Sonne dysentery There were sixteen cases of Sonne dysentery recorded during the year, eleven of them in a small localized outbreak in London Colney during May. Sonne dysentery is a mild disease. The patient suffers from abdominal colic and diarrhoea, sometimes with blood and mucus in the stools. The patient is ill from one to three days but then recovers quickly, but it is unfortunate that a number of patients, though remaining perfectly well, carry the germ (Shigella sonnei) in their stools for several weeks afterwards and during this time they are still highly infectious. Each case as it was notified was visited by the Public Health Inspector and stool samples were obtained from the rest of the family, and the families were instructed in the hygienic precautions necessary to prevent the spread of infection. In this disease, after the patient has been to the lavatory to move his bowels, the patient gets germs on to his hands (these germs pass very easily through toilet paper). If the patient does not wash his hands these germs are transferred to the toilet string handle, toilet seat, toilet door knob and also anything else which the patient subsequently touches. As these germs can live on these inanimate objects for several days they are a source of infection to another person who comes along and gets these germs on his hands and subsequently transfers them to his mouth. We instructed the head teacher at the school where - 16-