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who are suffering from coughs, cold, chills or red eyes are excluded, but
not if they are know for certain to have had the disease. A child under
seven years of age who is a contact of whooping cough should be excluded
for twenty-one days from the date of the occurrence of the last case in the
house unless he is known with certainty to have had the disease. These
recommendations apply to children attending day schools. More stringent
standards are advisable about the return to school of children at boarding
schools who have been in contact with a case of infection during the school
holidays.
It is now only exceptionally that adult contacts are excluded from
their work. There are two main classes of workers who may be required
to abstain from their ordinary work. The one is of those persons whose
work brings them into close contact with those such as young children
who are especially susceptible to attack, or hospital nurses who might
cause infection in a ward. The other group is of those whose work brings
them into contact with such foods as milk which, if infected, might
result in widespread infection. Even in the case of persons so employed,
it is not always necessary that they should stay away from work, but only
from that work at which there is the risk of spread. Many employers are
able to put the contact employees temporarily on to some alternative work
where there is no greater risk of the spread of infection than in the case of
ordinary members of the public. If a person has to remain away from
work with a view to reducing the risk of spread of infection, he is entitled
to draw sickness benefit at the rate he would receive were he ill. This
payment can be made, however, only if the Medical Officer of Health for
the district can issue a certificate that the exclusion of the contact is
necessary with a view to reducing the risk of spread of infection. The
Ministry of Health Circular 115/48 reads:— "As Medical Officers of
Health are aware, it is only exceptionally that it is necessary to require a
contact or carrier of infectious disease to stay away from work, and then
only as regards the more serious infections. But a Medical Officer of
Health, in his responsibility for preventive action, may on occasion
consider it necessary, where there is special risk, that such a person
should absent himself from his employment for a time; and it is in such
circumstances that the right to draw sickness benefit will arise. Benefit will
only be paid on the strength of a certificate by a Medical Officer of Health
that the person concerned is under medical observation by reason of
being a carrier of infectious disease, or of having been in contact with a
case of infectious disease (as the case may be), in circumstances which
make it advisable to exclude him from work. The Medical Officer of
Health should accordingly be prepared to issue such a certificate where he
thinks it proper to do so in order that the person concerned may send it to
the local office of the Ministry of National Insurance in support of his
claim for sickness benefit. The certificate should be given in writing,
preferably on official notepaper."
Because of the special features in the spread of poliomyelitis, more
stringent precautions are advised for the contacts of those suffering from
this complaint than from others.