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76
peral Fever " as a disease notifiable under those Acts. The
Regulations therefore, while prescribing new forms for the
notification of cases of Puerperal Fever, also require the
notification of cases of Puerperal Pyrexia (as defined in the
Regulations) in addition to the present notification of Puerperal
Fever.under the Infectious Disease (Notification) Acts,
thus placing an obligation upon medical practitioners to
notify all cases of Pyrexia during the puerperium irrespective
of the cause to which the fever may be attributed. It
is recognised that this requirement will lead to a great
increase in the number of notifications and that many cases
so reported will be relatively trivial in degree, but the great
importance of securing adequate treatment in the early stages
of Puerperal infection is regarded as outweighing any objection
to the notification of a certain amount of minor illness
which gives no cause for anxiety.
Reports received on inquiries recently carried out in
regard to the occurrence of Puerperal infecfion in connection
with various Maternity Institutions in different parts of the
Country, lead the Minister to think that Pyrexia during the
puerperium is not infrequently looked upon as a comparatively
unimportant incident, and that proper precautions to
prevent the spread of infection are at times neglected with
disastrous results. He desires to take this opportunity of
impressing upon all those concerned with administration or
treatment in Maternity Institutions that the presence of
infection, however slight in degree, in a patient or in a
member of the staff should be considered as liable to give
rise to an outbreak of virulent infection and should be dealt
with accordingly.
Article 3 of the Regulations requires the Local Authority to
cause notice to be given to all medical practitioners resident
or practising within the District of the Authority of the
duties imposed upon them by the Regulations, and Article 4
requires the Authority also to supply practitioners with
copies of the notification forms which are prescribed in the
Schedules to the Regulations. In this connection, it will be
desirable to explain that the effect of Articles 7 and 8 is
merely to require medical practitioners when notifying a
case of Puerperal Fever under the Infectious Disease (Notification)
Act, 1889, or under Section 55 of the Public Health
(London) Act, 1891, to use the form prescribed in Part I
or Part II, as the case may be, of the First Schedule to the
present Regulations, instead of the forms contained in the
Schedules to the Public Health (Notification of Infectious
Disease) Regulations, 1918. The attention of practitioners
should also be specially called to the definition of " Puerperal
Pyrexia " and to the fact that the notification forms enable
practitioners, when notifying a case of either Puerperal