SALMONELLA DISEASE

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30369, 19 February 1964, Page 13

SALMONELLA DISEASE

Five Cases Last Week

Five salmonellosis cases —three of paratyphoid-B and two of typhimurium—were reported in the Christchurch health district last week. All, according to the Medical Officer of Health (Dr. L. F. Jepson), were apparently the result of infected food, and all seemed unrelated to each other. The five cases were all in the city. The paratyphoid-B patients were all children: two boys, aged seven and eight respectively, and a girl of 10. The typhimurium cases were young adults, one of each sex.

Paratyphoid-B takes various forms, but in the cases notified last week it manifested as gastro-enferitis. The name “salmonellosis” indicated diseases resulting from bacteria of the genus Salmonella. Paratyphoid-B, typhimurium, typhoid fever and the other diseases of the group are each caused by a particular Salmonella species. Both paratyphoid-B and typhimurium may be passed from person to person by contact as well as through infected food, and there are symptomless carriers of each disease.

Other cases of notifiable diseases reported last week comprised two of pulmonary tuberculosis and one each of infective hepatitis, ophthalmia neonatorum, and occupational dermatitis. The tuberculosis victims were an elderly woman in Kaiapoi and a man in Waimairi county, the baby with ophthalmia was in a city hospital, and the hepatitis case was a city man. The health inspector’s report on the dermatitis has not yet been completed.