An Outbreak of Salmonella Heidelberg Infection in a General Medical Unit

ON the 18th August, 1963, an elderly woman, who was a patient in a general medical unit at the Belfast City Hospital, developed severe diarrhaea. This was the beginning of an outbreak of S. IeideIberg infection which lasted two and a half months; nineteen persons became infected, five had symptoms and there was one death. THE WARD UNIT. The unit consists of a male and a female ward, each with thirteen beds. The wards are on the upper floor of a forty-year-old building which is separate from the main hospital. They are connected by a landing to which stairs mount from the ground floor, where there are small casualty wards. A small kitchen also opens from this landing. Items such as bread and butter and toast are prepared here by the domestic staff for the patients, for themselves, and for the nurses, who take a light breakfast in the unit. Main courses are brought from a central kitchen and served from heated trolleys. At the time of the outbreak there were three doctors, nineteen nurses, and six domestics working in the unit.