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purposes of the Regulations, a Medical Practitioner shall be deemed
to have become aware that a person is suffering from Tuberculosis when
he has arrived at this conclusion from evidence other than that derived
solely from tuberculin tests applied to that person.
School Medical Inspectors are called upon to send weekly notifications
to Medical Officers of Health, as a'so are Medical Officers of Poor
Law Institutions and Sanatoria.
The Board in their circular letter of the 20th December, 1912,
pointed out that more than half the deaths from non-pulmonary
tuberculosis arc of children under five years of age, and stated that it is
probable that a much higher percentage of the total number of persons
suffering from non-pulmonary tuberculosis are children of this age, and
they expressed the hope that notification of these cases would facilitate
the investigation of sources of infection and assist in securing improvement
in the conditions under which the children live.
By Article XI. the Medical Officer of Health is required:—
(1) to send to the appropriate District all notifications erroneously
addressed to him and to inform the notifying practitioner that
he has done so ;
(2) to keep a register containing the full particulars set out in each
notification received by him ; and
(3) to send to the .Medical Officer of Health for the County after
the end of each week a statement of all notifications received
during the week ;
and Article XII. deals with the action to be taken by the Medical
Officer of Health upon the receipt of a notification.
Either he himself or an Officer acting under his instructions is
required to make such inquiries and take such steps as may be necessary
or desirable for investigating the source of infection, for preventing the
spread of infection, and for removing conditions favourable to
infection. The Board contemplate that for the purpose of carrying out
the requirements of this Article a visit to the home of the patient will
generally be necessary, and that the Medical Officer of Health will
doubtless avail himself of the co-operation of the notifying practitioner.
W hen a case is notified it is suggested that inquiry should be made to
ascertain the state of health of all other members of the household.