[Report 1936] / Medical Officer of Health, Fife County Council.

  • Fife (Scotland). County Council
Date:
1936
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1936] / Medical Officer of Health, Fife County Council. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    80/232 (page 80)
    In June some twelve persons in Lower Largo fell ill with vomiting abdominal pain, headache and diarrhoea. One family were originalh affected and the trouble spread to visitors to the household. Th( illness was of transient and comparatively mild type. It was nol deemed advisable to submit the patients, none of whom were ill fo' more than 24 hours, to the inconvenience of blood testing, particularly since the outbreak showed every sign of termination. The origin o the infection was not traced. Water supply, ice cream and milk cairn under suspicion but investigation showed that other persons who ha( been consuming these articles from the same sources had not beei affected. There was nothing in the structure or drainage arrangement, of the house which might have given rise to illness. In June an outbreak of diarrhoea without vomiting occurred amon the occupants of a group of rural cottages near Dairsie. Four familic out of five were involved. Specimens of faeces showed that the caus I of the illness was the Flexner group of dysentery bacilli. The onl common possible source of infection was the water supply which wa clearly liable to pollution. On chemical and bacteriological examin; tion, however, no evidence of serious contamination was found. A the patients recovered rapidly and shortly afterwards the propriety | undertook the complete renovation of the buildings. In September four persons in Peat Inn suddenly fell ill with diarrhoc I and vomiting. One of the patients, a woman of 63 years, Was sharp] ill and was removed to hospital. The others were only mildly affecte and recovered rapidly. Bacteriological investigation failed to demoi strate the causative organism. No common source of infection w< discovered. Locally the water supply from a common pump wo was declared to be the cause of the trouble but no confirmatory ev dence was obtained. Nevertheless the well was found to be liable pollution and steps were taken to have it adequately repaired and saf guarded. Infectious Diseases in Schools.—In the early months of the ye there were a few cases of scarlet fever in schools in Cupar District. T schools at Auchtermuchty and Strathmiglo were particularly affect but at no time was there an extensive outbreak. At that time, tc there was a considerable absentee list due to common colds. In March, after a period of comparative quiescence, Measles aga broke out. Cases appeared synchronously in fair numbers in scho< throughout the East of Fife. Some of the schools Were quite seven’ affected so far as the absence of children was concerned but the inf- tion itself was not of serious nature and it was not considered necessi/ to close any school or class. By the beginning of June the on three had subsided. During the last three months of the year Chickenpox and Muvs appeared in some schools but did not make much progress,