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the said authority, if they are aware that there is a person suffering
from an infectious disease in any house to give notice of the provisions
of the section (7) to the occupier.
Section 11, makes a person guilty of an offence, under the Act)
who hires or uses a public conveyance (other than a hearse), for the
conveyance of an infected body, without notifying the fact to the owner
or driver. Further, the owner or driver will be guilty of an offence
under the Act if, after receiving such notification, he does not provide
for the disinfection of the vehicle.
Sections 8 to 10 deal with the retention, removal, and burial of
dead bodies.
After death from an infectious disease, a body may not be retained
elsewhere than in a public mortuary, or in a room not used at the time
as a dwelling place, sleeping place, or workroom, for more than 48 hours,
without the sanction, in writing, of the Medical Officer of Health, or of
a registered medical practitioner (Section 8).
Section 9 is intended to provide for the burial, direct from the
hospital, &c., of any person who may die therein of an infectious disease.
The body, however, may be removed to a mortuary. The penalty for
an offence under this section, which is made operative by the certificate
of the Medical Officer of Health, or of a registered medical practitioner,
is not to exceed £10.
Should the infected body remain unburied, elsewhere than in a
mortuary or in a room as above-mentioned (8), for more than 48 hours,
without medical sanction, or should any dead body be retained in a house
so as to endanger the health of the inmates, any justice may, on the
application of the Medical Officer of Health, order the body to be
removed, at the cost of the local authority, to any available mortuary,
and direct the same to be buried within a time limited in the order.
A justice, moreover, may direct the immediate burial of an infected
body, or of any dead body the immediate burial of which he may consider
necessary.
Should the friends or relatives of the deceased in any of the above
cases not undertake to bury the body within the time limited by the
order of the justice, it will be the duty of the Relieving Officer to bury
such body, and the Guardians may recover the expenses incurred, in a