View report page

Regulation 33
"SCHEDULE 4
ADDITIONAL MEASURES WITH RESPECT TO THE DISEASES
SUBJECT TO THE INTERNATIONAL HEALTH REGULATIONS
PART I - PLAGUE
A. Infected ships and suspected ships
(1) The Medical Officer may -
(a) require any suspect on board to be disinsected and may place him under surveillance, the
period of surveillance being reckoned from the date of arrival of the ship;
(b) require the disinsecting and, if necessary, disinfection of the baggage of any infected
person or suspect, and of any other article on board and any part of the ship which the
Medical Officer considers to be contaminated.
(2) If there is any rodent infected with plague on board the Medical Officer or other authorised
officer shall require the ship to be deratted in a manner to be determined by him, but without prejudice
to the generality of this requirement the following special provisions shall apply to any
such deratting:—
(a) the deratting shall be carried out as soon as the holds have been emptied or when they
contain only ballast or other material, unattractive to rodents, of such a nature or so disposed
as to make a thorough inspection of the holds possible. A Deratting Exemption
Certificate may be issued for an oil tanker with full holds;
(b) one or more preliminary derattings of a ship with the cargo in situ, or during its unloading,
may be carried out to prevent the escape of infected rodents;
(c) if the complete destruction of rodents cannot be secured because only part of the cargo is
due to be unloaded, a ship shall not be prevented from unloading that part, but the Medical
Officer or other authorised Officer may apply any measure which he considers necessary
to prevent the escape of infected rodents, including placing the ship in quarantine.
(3) On arrival of a ship having on board a person suffering from pulmonary plague, or if there has
been a case of pulmonary plague on board a ship within the period of six days before its arrival,
the Medical Officer may —
(a) carry out the measures set out in paragraph 1 of Part I of this schedule;
(b) require any person on board to be placed in isolation for six days reckoned from the date
of the last exposure to infection.
B. Ships which have been in infected areas
(4) The Medical Officer may —
(a) place under surveillance any suspect who disembarks; the period of surveillance being
reckoned from the date of the departure of the ship from the infected area;
(b) regard as suspect any person not isolated for 6 days before departure from an area with
an epidemic of pulmonary plague;
(c) require, in exceptional circumstances and for well founded reasons, the destruction
of rodents on the ship and disinsection, but he shall give the Master notice in writing of
the reasons for the requirement."
Plague being primarily a disease of rats all vessels are inspected immediately on arrival at
their berths in the docks and river for the presence of any mortality among the rats on board
which is not attributable to any known cause, such as trapping, poisoning, etc.
Incidentally one of the "Health Questions" on page 1 of the "Maritime Declaration of Health"
requires the Master to answer "Yes" or "No" to the question "Has plague occurred or been
suspected amongst the rats or mice on board during the voyage, or has there been an abnormal
mortality among them?"
Any dead rats are immediately sent to the Central Public Health Laboratory at County Hall
for examination for pasteurella pestis, each being accompanied by a label on which is given
precise information as to where the ratwas found in orderto pinpoint the focus of infection should
the examination prove positive.
In the event of a positive result the "additional measures" referred to above would be put
into operation - the discharge of the cargo would be promptly stopped and arrangements made for
the vessel to be fumigated throughout with hydrogen cyanide, with the cargo in situ, the vessel
being moved to an approved mooring.
14