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38
Duties of Medical Officers of Health.
" Article XI. relates to the duties of a Medical Officer of
Health in connection with notification. He is required:—
(1) To send to the approximate District all notifications
erroneously addressed to him and to inform the notifying
practitioner that he has done so ;
(2) to keep a register containing the full particulars set
out in each notification received by him ; and
(3) to send to the Medical Officer of Health for the County
after the end of each week a statement of all notifications
received during the week.
" Article XII. relates to the action to be taken by a Medical
Officer of Health upon the receipt of a notification.
" Either the Medical Officer of Health himself or an Officer
acting under his instructions is required to make such inquiries
and take such steps as may be necessary or desirable for investigating
the source of infection, for preventing the spread of infection,
and for removing conditions favourable to infection. It is
contemplated that for the purpose of carrying out the requirements
of this Article a visit to the home of the patient will generally
be necessary, and the Medical Officer of Health will doubtless
avail himself of the co-operation of the notifying practitioner.
When a case is notified, inquiry should be made to ascertain the
state of health of all other members of the household.
" A record should be kept of the enquiries or investigations
made in each case into the causes and antecedents of this disease,
and of the conclusions reached by the Medical Officer of Health
as to the factors which combined to produce it."
Paragraph 35 of the Departmental Committee's report states :
" Sanitary Authorities are the bodies primarily concerned in the
administration of the Public Health Laws of this country, and
they must occupy an important position in any general scheme
dealing with Tuberculosis. It is they who receive notification of
cases of Pulmonary Tuberculosis, and it is the duty of their
Medical Officers of Health on receiving notification to take such
steps as may appear to them to be necessary or desirable for