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4. Facilities for laboratory diagnosis of smallpox.
Facilities are available at the Virus Laboratory of the Central Public Health Laboratory at
Colindale.
SECTION VII-VENEREAL DISEASES
The Venereal Diseases are not compulsorily notifiable but efforts are being made to bring to
the notice of all seamen using the Port, the facilities for free treatment under the Brussels
Agreement.
In October, 1956, your Medical Officer received an invitation from the World Health Organisation,
division of Communicable Disease Services, to participate in a meeting of a Study Group
to be convened for the purposes of examining the Brussels Agreement of 1924 relating to venereal
disease treatment in ports.
This invitation having received the approval of your Worshipful Committee, your Medical
Officer attended the Study Group which was held in Oslo from the 3rd to 7th December, 1956, and
subsequently reported as follows
"Your Medical Officer was one of five doctors who met round the table at the Ministry of
Health in Norway to discuss the working of the Brussels Agreement (made in 1924) which
provides for the free treatment of venereal disease in seafarers of all nationalities at
major ports all over the world. The five doctors met as an informal Study Group to consider
whether in the light of modern trends in medicine, public health and developments of seafaring,
the Agreement needed revision.
The other doctors were the Chief Medical Officers of the Public Health Services of Italy,
Norway and Japan, and the International Health Representative of the Department of Health,
Education and Welfare of the Public Health Service of the United States of America. The
Norwegian was elected to the Chairmanship of the Study Group and the Secretariat was
provided by the World Health Organisation in the person of another Norwegian, Dr. Guthe,
who is Chief of the Venereal Diseases and Treponematoses Section, Division of Communicable
Disease Services, World Health Organisation. Also present were a representative of
the International Labour Office (Maritime Branch), another Norwegian, and a representative
of the Legal Section of the World Health Organisation."
At the conclusion of their week's discussion the Study Group drew up a report to the World
Health Organisation, Division of Communicable Disease Service, containing a number of recommendations
for improving the operation of the Brussels agreement and for providing better medical
treatment services generally for seafarers of all nations at major ports throughout the world.