Abstract
On the basis of the statistical data on nation-wide food poisoning in the last 5 years, the author made an epidemiological study of staphylococcal food poisoning in all food poisonings and also looked into the state of contamination due to pathogenic Staphylococci of 1,614 samples from among a variety of foods on the market in the city of Yokohama in 1958. Furthermore, the author inquired into the state of contamination ascribed to pathogenic Staphylococci of 231 confection samples in 95 confectionaries as well as into the carrier-state of pathogenic Staphylococci in 332 employees and its relationship and the results are are as follows.
1. In only 22.7% of the total number of 8,278 food poisonings in the 4 years starting in 1955, causative substances were made known.
2. Food poisonings due to Staphylococci out of all bacterial food poisonings occupied such a high rate as 38.5% and starches accounted for 70% of all bacterial origins, the rate being exceedingly high.
3. The detection rate for pathogenic Staphylococci in all foods on the market was 7.3% and especially the rate was higher in confections (27.7%) and cereals and finished goods (19.6%) as compared with other foods.
4. A high ordinal correlation (r=0.928) was noticed between the detection rate by food for pathogenic Staphylococci in foods on the marked and the incidence by food of bacterial food poisoning.
5. The detection rate for pathogenic Staphylococci in confections-selling shops was higher in comparison with that in confectionaries. 6. For confections made in confectionaris where pathogenic Staphylococci were detected from employees, the detection was in strikingly higher rates than for those in confectionaries where no carriers of the said bacteria were found.
