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year of cases of malignant Malaria on ships from the West Coast of Africa
notably the ports of Dakar and Freetown, a Committee representing the
Admiralty, the Board, and other Departments concerned, are now considering
the precautions against the infection of passengers and crews of ships when
calling at these ports with a view to making them more efficient.
In connexion with this matter it is important that the Board should obtain
information as to cases of Malaria on ships arriving from ports on the West
African Coast, and that certain precautionary measures should be taken, and
I am to request the Port Sanitary Authority to be good enough to authorise
their Medical Officer of Health in connexion with vessels arriving from West
African Ports this year to
(1) inquire as to the dates on which the vessel was in the port in
question, and as to the occurrence of cases of Malaria among the passengers
or crew after the vessels left the ports;
(2) provide or assist in securing hospital treatment for severe cases
of Malaria brought into the Port Sanitary District.
Where cases of Malaria have occurred which apparently have contracted
the disease during the stay of the vessel in ports on the West African Coast, or
where there is special reason to suspect that passengers or crew may be
incubating Malaria as a result of the circumstances in which the vessel stayed
in these ports, it is very desirable that the Medical Officer of Health should
(a) take the names and addresses of the destinations of passengers
and forward them to the Medical Officer of Health of the district concerned
asking to be informed if Malaria develops in any case ;
(b) keep the crew under observation and secure quinine treatment,
and if necessary hospital treatment, of any case of Malaria among them
whilst the vessel is in port, and also, if required, inform the Medical Officer
of Health of any other British port to which the vessel proceeds ;
(c) report the facts to the Board.
I am, Sir,
Your obedient Servant,
(Signed) H. 0. STUTCHBURY,
for Assistant Secretary.
The Clerk to the
London Port Sanitary Authority.
The measures suggested fitted into the system at present at work under your
Worshipful Committee, by which serious ship-borne infections are dealt with, with
such modifications as are suitable to the peculiar cause and cure of Malaria.
/
Provision of hospital treatment at Denton was during 1917 approved by your
Worshipful Committee.
No legal compulsion for the patient is implied.