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4
Notification
of Infectious
Disease.
The Infectious Disease (Notification) Act came into
operation on the 31st Oct., 1889. This Act provides (inter alia)
that where an inmate of any building, ship, vessel, boat, tent,
van, shed, or similar structure, used for human habitation, is
suffering from any of the infectious diseases following,
viz.—smallpox, cholera, diphtheria, membranous croup, erysipelas,
scarletina, scarlet fever or typhus, typhoid, enteric,
relapsing, continued, or puerperal fever, then (except in the
case of hospitals) the head of the family to which such inmate
belongs, and in his default, the nearest relatives of the patient
present in the building or being in attendance on the patient,
and in default of such relatives, every person in charge of or
in attendance on the patient, and in default of any such
person, the occupier of the building, must, as soon as he
becomes aware that the patient is suffering from an infectious
disease to which the Act applies, send notice to the Medical
Officer of Health for the district. The expression "occupier"
includes a person having the charge, management, or control
of a building, or of the part of a building, in which the patient
is, and in the case of a house the whole of which is let out in
separate tenements, or in the case of a lodging-house the
whole of which is let to lodgers, the person receiving the rent
payable by the tenants or lodgers, either on his own account
or as the agent of another person. The Act also provides
that every medical practitioner attending on or called in to
visit a patient must forthwith, on becoming aware that the
patient is suffering from an infectious disease to which the
Act applies, send to the Medical Officer of Health for the
District a certificate stating the name of the patient, the
situation of the building, and the infectious disease from
which, in the opinion of such medical practitioner, the patient
is suffering. Every person required to give a notice or certificate
who fails to give the same is liable to a penalty of 40/With
a view to making known the provisions of the Act,
the Board, prior to its coming into force, caused postingbills
to be exhibited and handbills to be circulated throughout
the district containing a summary thereof, and cautioning