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6
Smallpox
The Public Health (Aircraft) (Amendment) Regulations, 1963 and
the Public Health (Ships) (Amendment) Regulations, 1963 came into
operation on 1st August. They enable port and airport health officers
to require the production of international certificates of vaccination
against smallpox. If a person has not a certificate he may be
offered vaccination, and may be placed under surveillance or in
isolation.
Ministry of Health Circular 13/63 dated July 1963 gives administrative
guidance as to how the Amending Regulations should at present
be applied. International Vaccination Certificates should now be produced
by travellers arriving directly by air from (a) any place in
Asia, Africa or the Americas (excluding Canada and the U.S.A.);or
(b) any smallpox-infected local area wherever it may. Travellers
who do not possess valid certificates or who do not show evidence of
protection by a previous attack of smallpox should be offered vaccination
and placed under surveillance. If travellers from a smallpoxinfected
area refuse vaccination, they should be isolated for fourteen
days from the date of their departure from the infected area.
As the likelihood of importation of smallpox by sea is, because
of the different speed of travel, considerably less than that of air, it
is not intended that port medical officers at seaports shall ask to see
International Vaccination Certificates of sea travellers as a matter of
routine, but that they should do so in the case of an infected ship.
These Regulations resulted from expressions of opinion by the
Public Health Committee of the Council of Europe which was concerned
about importation of smallpox into the "excepted areas." The
Regulations are designed to achieve greater uniformity of control within
the excepted areas and at the same time to facilitate international
travel. The excepted areas are the Channel Islands, the Isle of
Man, the Irish Republic, France in Europe, Belgium, the Netherlands,
Luxembourg, Italy, Greece, the Federal Republic of Germany and the
United Kingdom. These are fortunate areas of the world where
smallpox is not endemic and, indeed, is rarely found.
Nine persons arrived in U.K. by air from smallpox endemic
areas after the Regulations came into force and proceeded to addresses
in Hornsey; they were placed under surveillance for 14 days.