Hints from the Health Department. Leaflet from the archive of the Society of Medical Officers of Health. Credit: Wellcome Collection, London
Report on the vital and sanitary statistics of the Borough of Lambeth during the year 1904
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(b) It should be an offence to withhold information or make
false statements to the Sanitary Authority in carrying
out its powers with respect to the disease.
4. That in order to deal effectually with the transmission of
notifiable infectious diseases by tramps, power should be given
to County Councils to enforce the existing laws in all cases
where Sanitary Authorities in the County refuse or neglect to
do so.
5. That the Local Government Board should obtain powers to
secure weekly returns of all cases of infectious disease from all
central authorities throughout the country, and circulate the
same.
6. That it is desirable that in districts comprising groups of
counties and county boroughs, intelligence bureaux should be
established, to which information should be sent from Sanitary
Authorities and workhouses in the district, of persons of the
wandering class who have been exposed to the infection of
Smallpox; and that a printed copy of such information should
be distributed from the bureaux to every Sanitary Authority and
Board of Guardians in the district, and that the expense of
working the bureaux should be met by contributions from the
County Councils and County Boroughs forming the district.
7. That this Conference is of opinion that the Port Sanitary
Authorities should be authorised to take more stringent precautions
to prevent the importation of disease by persons arriving
by vessel at the ports who are suffering from Smallpox, or who
have been exposed to infection by that disease.
Common Lodging-Houses and Casual Wards.
8. That the Local Authority should have increased control
over common lodging-houses, their keepers, and occupants.
Thus the Local Authority should have power:—
(a) To medically examine the inmates.
(b) To detain and isolate persons exposed to infection and to
disinfect them and their clothes.
(c) To temporarily close a common lodging-house in whole
or in part, compensation to be given to the keeper of
the house.