View report page

INFECTIOUS DISEASES.
The Public Health Act, 1936, came into operation on the
1st October, 1937. Two changes with regard to the notification
of infectious disease were made— (1) continued fever and (2)
puerperal fever were omitted from the list of “ notifiable
diseases.”
The diseases notifiable to the Medical Officer of Health in
Wembley are as follows:— (1) “Notifiable diseases,” as
defined by the Public Health Act, 1936, Small-Pox, Cholera,
Diphtheria, Membranous Croup, Erysipelas, Scarlatina or
Scarlet Fever, Fevers known by any of the following names:—
Typhus, Typhoid, Enteric or Relapsing. (2) Other infectious
diseases having been made “ notifiable” diseases according to
the powers given under the Public Health Act, 1936—None.
(3) Infectious diseases notifiable under separate procedures,
e.g. various Orders and Regulations:— Plague, Cerebrospinal
Fever, Acute Poliomyelitis, Acute Encephalitis Lethargica,
Acute Polioencephalitis, Ophthalmia Neonatorum, Puerperal
Pyrexia (N.B. Now including cases clinically recognised as
Puerperal Fever), Malaria, Dysentery (including amoebic and
bacillary), Acute Primary Pneumonia and Acute Influenzal
Pneumonia, Tuberculosis, all forms.
Other changes were introduced by the Act according to the
following letters which are sent by the Medical Officer of
Health, one to the occupier of the premises, the other to the
owner, when a case of “ notifiable disease ” has occurred:—
(a) To the Occupier.
Notification having been received under Section 144
of the Public Health Act, 1936, that an inmate of the above
premises is suffering from a notifiable disease, I hereby
give you notice of the provisions of Section 156 and Section
158 of the Public Health Act, 1936.
These sections provide as follows:—
“ 156—(1) A person who places, or causes or permits to be
placed in a dustbin or ashpit any matter which he
knows to have been exposed to infection from a
notifiable disease, and which has not been disinfected,
shall be liable to a fine not exceeding five pounds
—(2) The local authority shall give notice of the
provisions of this section to the occupier of any house
in which they are aware that there is a person suffering
from a notifiable disease.”
84