The history of Aberdeen’s most famous food poisoning outbreak will come under the spotlight early next year thanks to a £90,000 grant awarded to the University of Aberdeen by the Wellcome Trust.
A team of researchers will carry out the most comprehensive study into the typhoid outbreak of 1964 since
the official Government enquiry conducted at the time. The three-year project will start next February.
The Wellcome Trust, which supports research in the history of medicine as well as medical science, awarded the grant to Professor Hugh Pennington, Department of Medical Microbiology, Professor Elizabeth Russell, Department of Public Health, and Dr David Smith, Department of History. Lesley Diack, also of the history department, will be employed as a research assistant.
The Aberdeen typhoid outbreak was one of the largest food poisoning episodes in Britain after the Second World War. Two cases of typhoid fever were diagnosed on 20 May 1964. By the time the outbreak was over, more than 400 individuals were infected. A can of Argentinean corned beef was found to be the source of the causative organism. This was the first such episode in which television played a major role and, as a result of the publicity given to the outbreak, Aberdeen quickly acquired an image of a “beleaguered city”.
As medical, scientific, political and public interest in food poisoning has increased during the 1980s and 1990s, it is hoped that the research will provide insights of contemporary as well as historical interest. The Aberdeen typhoid outbreak was followed by an official investigation chaired by Sir David Milne. His report made 14 recommendations, some of which were never implemented.
Professor Pennington said that among the published findings of the recent enquiry into the E-coli poisoning incident in Lanarkshire in November 1996, was the recommendation that there should be a requirement for all foodhandlers to have undertaken at least basic food training. Almost identical recommendations were made in the Milne report.
One of the aims of the new project will be to investigate the conduct and impact of the Milne enquiry by means of archival research using papers in the Scottish Record Office and Public Record Office, and oral history interviews. The project will also look at the history of the outbreak itself using these and additional sources, including papers held at the Northern Health Services Archive at Woolmanhill, and at the Aberdeen City Archives.
The experience of the victims of the outbreak and other local people concerned with or affected by it, will also be a very important part of the project. This will mainly involve oral history interviewing, but the team also hopes to gain access to written sources, for example diaries and letters written during the outbreak.
An appeal for potential interviewees will be made later, but meanwhile David Smith would be very pleased to hear from anyone who would like to volunteer information. Readers wishing to contact the project should write to David Smith, University of Aberdeen, Department of History, Meston Walk, King's College, Old Aberdeen, Aberdeen AB24 3FX, or Tel: (01224) 273676.