[Report 1932] / Medical Officer of Health, Bristol.

  • Bristol (England). Council.
Date:
1932
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1932] / Medical Officer of Health, Bristol. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    16/248 (page 16)
    IG (/) Wireless messages. Apart from messages received from vessels by the local owners and thence transferred to the port sanitary officer no arrangements exist for receiving direct wireless messages from ships. (3) What vessels aye boarded on arrival, by whom, where, and how. All vessels from foreign on arrival at Bristol, Avonmouth, or Portishead are boarded by a port sanitary inspector at the lock entrances. The inspector immediately notifies the port medical officer of health of any cases of sickness that may be present on board or have occurred during the voyage, of any serious infestation with rats or of the presence of dead rats. A port medical officer visits such ships as soon as possible. In addition every ship from ports considered to be dangerous or suspicious in regard to plague, cholera, yellow fever, typhus, or smallpox is visited on arrival by a port medical officer. The following are the instructions observed in the port. The inspectors notify the port medical officer of all ships from (a) all ports on lists which are supplied weekly— in- cluding ports on these lists during the previous four weeks ; (b) all Mediterranean ports, and all Black Sea, Russian, Indian, Gold Coast and South American ports, whether on these lists or not ; (c) any special circumstances, or a ship due from an unusual port is also so notified. During 1932, 248 ships from foreign were inspected by a medical officer and the crews examined. (4) Arrangements for disposal of cases of infectious disease and for observation or surveillance of contacts : Patients suffering from any infectious disease and cases requir- ing observation are removed to Ham Green Isolation Hospital, or, if of smallpox to Novers Hill Hospital. Contacts of infectious cases if not removed to hospital are kept under observation by the port sanitary officers, and in the event of their proceeding to an address outside the city, the medical officer of health of the district concerned is advised. All ships from infected or suspicious ports are visited daily during their stay in the docks by a sanitary inspector. He enquires as to the health of the crew and those working on the ship. (5) Arrangements for disinfection of infected quarters, bedding, clothing, etc. Infected quarters arc fumigated by sulphur, or by spraying with disinfectant ; and the bedding clothing, etc., is removed by means of motor vans to the central disinfecting station, Bristol, and there disinfected by steam. Laundry from any suspicious ship is taken for disinfection by the sanitary staff to Bristol. (0) Arrangements for cleansing of persons : This is carried out at the bathing centre at the Bristol dis- infecting station to which patients are conveyed by the Health Committee’s motor ambulance. Facilities are ]')rovided for bathing both males and females, and attendants are available on the ])remi.ses to supervise the opc'ration.