Hypersensitivity to Penicillin

Hypersensitivity to Penicillin

912 here because the husband was a doctor and if his wife came to live with him again she would have access to drugs. But the husband, in order succes...

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912 here because the husband was a doctor and if his wife came to live with him again she would have access to drugs. But the husband, in order successfully to resist a decree for restitution would have to show that it would be wrong to treat him as a deserting spouse (Russell v. Russell [1895] pp. 315, 334). The husband in this case could not show that. The wife had shown herself willing to do what she could to rehabilitate the married life, and there was nothing to prevent an order being made in her favour. The appeal should be dismissed. Lord Justice Parker -gave a concurring judgment. The Master of the Rolls (Sir Raymond Evershed) also agreed, but added that the husband’s past acts in administering these drugs would not necessarily disqualify him from any relief in the future if the wife should come back and again succumb to any relapse and he should find he could not go on living with her. The appeal was dismissed.

inquest a pathologist said the presence of poison factor in causing the child’s death. He had also found evidence of dysentery. In answer to a question, he said he did not know whether the child would have died of cyanide poisoning if she had not had dysentery: death was due to a combination of the two. The child’s mother told how she had handed the perambulator, containing a mattress and clothing, to corporation employees. She was not told to remove the mattress. In evidence an employee of the health department said that the family were told not to leave bedding in the perambulator. Recording a verdict of accidental death, the deputy coroner found that there was no evidence of criminal neglect, but there may have been some At the was a

" slip-up

When

an

Dies after

Fumigation of Pram Oldham family moved into a corporation

prefabricated house their hard furnishings, including the baby’s perambulator, were fumigated with hydrogen cyanide.1 Later the baby became ill and died, and the parents - and a daughter aged 2 had headaches and sickness. Their pet budgerigar also died. A forensic report said that traces of cyanide were found in the lungs and other organs of the baby and also in the dead bird. 1.

MEDICAL CARE IN A SOUTH AFRICAN TOWNSHIP M.B. Rand.

MARGARET CORMACK M.B., Med.B.Sc. Rand. MEDICAL

woman

injection

"

2.

The Wider World

M.B.

ZENA STEIN Rand., M.A. (U.C.T.)

MICHAEL HATHORN M.B., B.Sc.Eng. Rand.

OFFICERS, ALEXANDRA HEALTH CENTRE CLINIC, JOHANNESBURG

AND

UNIVERSITY

Alexandra .Township, with its 80,000 African and Coloured people living in an area of li/2 sq. miles, lies on the outskirts of Johannesburg. It is one of the few places in the Union where Africans may own land. The population is changing from a rural to an industrial society ; the old extended family, which provided its own social security, is breaking up and slowly being replaced by the isolated, fragmented industrial family. The men are employed in Johannesburg in the factories, in businesses, as domestic servants, at an average wage of about jE3a week. Many women work in the city. A growing number is employed in industry but the majority are washerwomen, nursemaids, and housemaids, sleeping in servants’ quarters in Johannesburg and returning to their families on their days off. A sprinkling of the population are shopkeepers and professionals. The Alexandra Health Committee has an annual budget of £70,000-less than flper head of population, compared with the budget of f28 per head in the adjacent Johannesburg area. The Health Committee is expected to attend to the usual local-government functions. Being mainly a nominated body it has little standing with the people. There are no sewers ;

to Penicillin

of 73 died within ten minutes of receiving of penicillin.2 At the inquest her doctor said he had given the patient penicillin before without ill effects, but this time he noticed that she became flushed and breathless a few seconds after the injection. In spite of all he did she died within ten minutes. A pathologist attributed death to the intravenous injection of a small amount of penicillin, to which the patient was allergic. If she had not been abnormally sensitive she would not have died. A verdict of "death by misadventure was recorded.

A

Daily Telegraph, April 22, 1955.

MERVYN SUSSER

by a public-health employee.

Hypersensitivity an

Baby

"

Evening Standard, April 22, 1955.

sanitation and refuse disposal are inadequate ; the roads are ditches (fig. 1) ; and the streets are unlit. Because of lack of funds no fundamental measures for the control of communicable disease can be undertaken. Budget studies by the staff of the Community Centre have shown that it is theoretically impossible for an Alexandra family to subsist on the average income. Once rent, food, and transport have been allowed for, there is no money left for clothing, blankets, or enter. tainment ; nor is there anything with which to meet such disasters as illness, death, or unemployment. Most families rent one small room which must suffice for all their needs. The staple cereal is maize, and white bread and oats are also used widely. The main meal usually consists of porridge, a little meat, and perhaps potatoes. Fresh fruit, vegetables, meat, fish, and eggs are in the shops, but are expensiveand little used. With both parents at work and no after-school activities girls and boys bring themselves up as best they can.

Fig. I-An

average Alexandra

plot

seen

from the street.