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49
CONTROL OF INFECTIOUS DISEASE.
Notifiable Diseases.
The notifiable diseases are those which under the provisions of the
Public Health Acts are required to be notified to the Medical Officer of
Health of the district and comprise smallpox, cholera, diphtheria, membranous
croup, erysipelas, scarlet fever, and typhus, typhoid and enteric
or relapsing fevers. Other diseases might be made notifiable in a particular
district by the local authority of that area with approval of the
Ministry of Health. Under these provisions pemphigus of the new born
is notifiable here (order confirmed 31.7.35, and effective from 17.8.35).
Notification is required by the head of the family or the nearest relative
present in attendance on the patient, or any person in charge of or in
attendance on the patient, or the occupier of the building ; and also by
every medical practitioner attending or called to visit the patient.
Apart from these notifiable diseases are others which are required
to be notified by a variety of orders or regulations ; these include plague,
cerebro-spinal meningitis, acute poliomyelitis, tuberculosis, ophthalmia
neonatorum, encephalitis lethargica, malaria, dysentery, acute primary
pneumonia, acute influenzal pneumonia, puerperal pyrexia, measles and
whooping cough.
Under the Food and Drugs Acts, 1938, medical practitioners are
required to notify cases of food poisoning.
Veterinary Inspectors are required to notify to the Medical Officer
of Health anthrax, glandular, farcy, and rabies, in animals. Industrial
poisoning contracted in a factory must be notified to the Chief Inspector
of factories.
Home Visits.
On receipt of a notification of one of the more usual notifiable
diseases, a visit is paid by the health visitor and enquiries instituted,
(a) to determine if possible the source of infection, with the object of
taking whatever steps might be practicable to avoid others being infected
from that source, and (b) to enable such steps as may be taken to minimise
the spread of infection by the infected persons.
Admission to Hospital.
Not all patients suffering from a notifiable disease need to be admitted
to hospital. For some years after the isolation hospitals were established,
their purpose was the admission of infectious patients with the
object of preventing the spread of infection to others, the diseases from
which sufferers were admitted being scarlet fever, diphtheria and
enteric fever. To-day's conception of the purpose of the isolation
d