SCARLET FEVER MILK-BORNE OUTBREAKS 



299 



numbered 100, and 20, or 20 per cent., 

 were attacked. Dr Sykes found that 

 some of the Hendon milk had been 

 distributed by two vendors, among 

 whose customers 3 cases of scarlet 

 fever had occurred, and on 21st Octo- 

 ber a milkman on the Hendon farm 

 was found to be suffering from scarlet 

 fever. A veterinary inspector had also 

 found 5 cows at the farm with " sore 

 teats and inflammatory symptoms." 



Apparent exciting cause. — Milk in- 

 fected from human or bovine sources. 



Reporter and reference. — Dr Sykes. 

 Rep. of Medical Officer of St Pancras, 

 1893. 



Glasgow, 1893 {December). 

 Total number of cases . . 30 

 Number of cases amongst 



drinkers of suspected milk . 38 

 Percentage on total cases . . 93 

 f umber of families supplied by 



milkman 80 



lumber of such families invaded 1 1 



I'ercentage 13.7 



lumber of polluted milk sources 



(farms A and B) . . . 2 



Circumstances implicating the milk 

 supply. — Dr Chalmers traced the first 

 attack to a milk boy at farm A, recently 

 come there, who suffered from sore 

 throat early in December. Other 

 farm servants fell ill with similar 

 s\Tnptoms, the disease proving to be 

 scarlet fever. The fever attacked 

 persons along the delivery track of 

 the cart from this farm, which was in 

 charge at different times of 4 persons, 

 3 of whom had scarlet fever in Decem- 

 ber. Seventeen cases of scarlet fever 

 obtained their milk direct from this 

 cart. 



On farm B, 3 girls, occupying the 

 same bedroom, fell ill of scarlet fever 

 in December, one of them keeping at 

 work for two days thereafter. From 

 this source 4 households became in- 

 vaded. The two farms were on terms 

 of familiar intercourse. 



Probable exciting cause. — Human 

 source. 



Reporter and reference. — Dr 

 Chalmers (Med. Off. of Health). 

 Brit. Med. Jour., 1894, vol. i., p. 426. 



40 

 I 



30 

 75 



Hastings, 1893 {November). 



Total number of cases 



Deaths 



Number of cases amongst 



drinkers of suspected milk . 

 Percentage on total cases . 

 Number of families supplied by 



milkman ..... 64 

 Number of such families invaded 20 

 Percentage 31 



Circumstances implicating the milk 

 supply. — Cowsheds sanitarily defective 

 — ill-paved, undrained, and unventi- 

 lated. Cows in a febrile condition. 

 Three quarters of the houses invaded 

 dealt with one dairyman obtaining 

 milk from this farm. The exciting 

 cause of the pollution of the milk was 

 not ascertained. 



Many of the patients were large 

 milk consumers. In one school of 

 20 boys, only 2 consumed the sus- 

 pected milk, and they contracted 

 scarlet fever. In another case one 

 member of a family alone drank it 

 unboiled, and was infected. In a third 

 case a patient, a large milk drinker, 

 who had been isolated for influenza 

 for 12 days, drank the miUc and caught 

 the disease in this inten'al. Seventy 

 per cent, of the houses supplied with 

 the implicated milk were attacked. 



Probable exciting cause. — Unascer- 

 tained. 



Reporter and reference. — Dr S. 

 Wilson (Med. Off. of Health). Annual 

 Report, 1893. 



Richmond, Surrey, 1894 {February). 



Total number of cases . . 55 

 Niunber of cases amongst 



drinkers of suspected milk . 52 



Percentage on total cases . . 95 



