London's Pulse: Medical Officer of Health reports 1848-1972

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St Pancras 1900

[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for St. Pancras, London, Borough of]

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31
PLAGUE.
Circular Letter to Medical Practitioners.
Saint Pancras,
Health Department,
Town Hall, Pancras Road, N.W.,
October, 1900.
Sir,
Order of Local Government Board.
I beg to inform you that this Authority has received an Order of the
Local Government Board, dated 19th September, 1900, making Regulations
with regard to Plague. In the District of every Sanitary Authority, the
sections of the Public Health Acts in reference to the compulsory notification
of dangerous infectious diseases are, by this Order of the Local Government
Board, made applicable to Plague.
The Order also requires that circular letters shall forthwith be sent to
all legally qualified Medical Practitioners in the District, informing them of
their duties under this Regulation.
The Order further requires that every Medical Officer of Health shall
forthwith report to the Local Government Board any case of Plague which
may be notified to him, or which may otherwise come or be brought to his
knowledge, or which may occur in the District or area assigned to his charge.
In order that you may be informed of your duties in reference to the
notification of Plague under the Regulation of the Local Government Board,
I beg to quote Section 55 of the Public Health (London) Act, 1891:—
Public, Health (London) Act, 1891. (54 & 55 Vic., cap. 76, sec. 55.)
55.—(1) Where an inmate of any house within the district of a sanitary
authority is suffering from an infectious disease to which this Section applies,
the following provisions shall have effect, that is to say :
(a) The head of the family to which such inmate (in this Section
referred to as the patient) belongs, and in his default the nearest
relatives of the patient present in the. house or being in attendance
on the patient, and in default of any such person the master of
the house shall, as soon as he becomes aware that the patient is
suffering from an infectious disease to which this Section applies,
send notice thereof to the Medical Officer of Health of the district.
(b) Every medical practitioner attending on or called in to visit the
patient shall forthwith, on becoming aware that the patient is
suffering from an infectious disease to which this Section applies,
send to the Medical Officer of Health for the district a certificate
stating the full name and the age and sex of the patient, the full