Infectious Diseases: Typhoid Angus

The bacteria that cause typhoid fever live almost exclusively in sewage, and typhoid remains a major problem in Asia, Africa and parts of South America. In countries where water supplies are kept free from sewage contamination and where food handlers follow the basic rules of cleanliness, typhoid is a rare disease. When it erupts in a place that prides itself on good sanitation, as it did in the Swiss ski resort of Zermatt 18 months ago, it causes a violent flap. Last week there was a new typhoid flap in clean Aberdeen, Scotland (pop. 186,000). There were 324 confirmed cases (two deaths) and 55 suspected, with still more expected.

Aberdeen’s medical officer, Dr. Ian MacQueen, was certain that he had found the explanation: “There is no shadow of doubt that this outbreak started from a tin of corned beef.” The meat was in a 6-lb. can and had come from South America. In an Aberdeen delicatessen it was sliced on a machine that was also used to slice other meats. The infected machine spread the infection to these meats and to the customers who ate them. As the statistics of sickness piled up, the British government ordered a top-level inquiry to find out just where in South America the meat had come from and, hopefully, to learn how typhoid bacilli got into it.

Typhoid is no longer the dreaded, deadly plague of old, now that antibiotics can usually cure it. But while the inquiry went on, Aberdeen remained a beleaguered city.