CHAPTER VI.-THE TREATMENT OF VESSELS. 38. Clean vessels will be granted pratique by the port health authority upon acceptable evidence that they properly fulfil the requirements of Article 35. 39. Suspected vessels will be subjected to necessary sanitary measures to determine their actual condition. 40. Vessels infected with any of the diseases referred to in Article 23 shall be subjected to such sanitary measures as will prevent the continuance thereon, and the spread therefrom, of any of the said diseases to other vessels or ports. The disinfection of cargo, stores and personal effects shall be limited to the destruction of the vectors of disease which may be contained therein, provided that things which have been freshly soiled with human excretions capable of transmitting disease shall always be disinfected. Vessels on which there is undue prevalence of rats, mosquitoes, lice, or any other potential vector of communicable disease, may be disinfected irrespective of the classification of the vessel. 41. Vessels infected with plague shall be subjected to the following treatment: (1.) The vessel shall be held for observation and necessary treatment. (2.) The sick, if any, shall be removed and placed under appropriate treatment in isolation. (3.) The vessel shall be simultaneously fumigated throughout for the destruction of rats. In order to render fumigation more effective, cargo may be wholly or partially discharged prior to such fumigation, but care will be taken to discharge no cargo which might harbour rats, (2) except for fumigation. (4.) All rats recovered after fumigation should be examined bacteriologically. (5.) Healthy contacts, except those actually exposed to cases of pneumonic plague, will not be detained in quarantine. (6.) The vessel will not be granted pratique until it is reasonably certain that it is free from rats and vermin. 42. Vessels infected with cholera shall be subjected to the following treatment: (1.) The vessels shall be held for observation and necessary treatment. (2) Explanatory Footnote.-The nature of the goods or merchandise likely to harbour rats (plague suspicious cargo) shall, for purpose of this section, be deemed to be the following, namely: rice or other grain (exclusive of flour); oilcake in sacks, beans in mats or sacks; goods packed in crates with straw or similar packing material; matting in bundles; dried vegetables in baskets or cases; dried and salted fish; peanuts in sacks; dry ginger; curios, &c., in fragile cases, copra, loose hemp in bundles; coiled rope in sacking kapok, maize in bags, sea grass in bales; tiles, large pipes and similar articles; and bamboo poles in bundles. (2.) The sick, if any, shall be removed and placed under appropriate treatment in isolation. (3.) All persons on board shall be subjected to bacteriological examination, and shall not be admitted to entry until demonstrated free from cholera vibrios. (4.) Appropriate disinfection shall be performed. 43. Vessels infected with yellow fever shall be subjected to the following treatment : : (1.) The vessel shall be held for observation and necessary treatment. (2.) The sick, if any, shall be removed and placed under appropriate treatment in isolation from Aedes aegypti mosquitoes. (3.) All persons on board non-immune to yellow fever shall be placed under observation to complete six days from the last possible exposure to Aedes aegypti mosquitoes. (4.) The vessel shall be freed from Aedes aegypti mosquitoes. 44. Vessels infected with smallpox shall be subjected to the following treatment : (1.) The vessels shall be held for observation and necessary treatment. (2.) The sick, if any, shall be removed and placed under appropriate treatment in isolation. (3.) All persons on board shall be vaccinated. As an option the passenger may elect to undergo isolation to complete fourteen days from the last possible exposure to the disease. (4.) All living quarters of the vessels shall be rendered mechanically clean, and used clothing and bedding of the patient disinfected. 45. Vessels infected with typhus shall be subjected to the following treatment: (1.) The vessel shall be held for observation and necessary treatment. (2.) The sick, if any, shall be removed and placed under appropriate treatment in isolation from lice. (3.) All persons on board and their personal effects shall be deloused. (4.) All persons on board who have been exposed to the infection shall be placed under observation to complete twelve days from the last possible exposure to the infection. (5.) The vessel shall be deloused. 46. The time of detention of vessels for inspection or treatment shall be the least consistent with public safety and scientific knowledge. It is the duty of port health officers to facilitate the speedy movement of vessels to the utmost compatible with the foregoing. 47. The power and authority of quarantine will not be utilised for financial gain, and no charges for quarantine services will exceed actual cost plus a reasonable surcharge for administrative expenses and fluctuations in the market prices of materials used. CHAPTER VII.-FUMIGATION STANDARDS. 48. Sulphur dioxide, hydrocyanic acid and cyanogen chloride gas mixture shall be considered as standard fumigants when used in accordance with the table set forth in the Appendix, as regards hours of exposure and of quantities of fumigants per 1,000 cubic feet. 49. Fumigation of ships to be most effective should be performed periodically and preferable at six months intervals, and should include the entire vessel and its lifeboats. The vessels should be free of cargo. 50. Before the liberation of hydrogen cyanide or cyanogen chloride, all personnel of the vessel will be removed, and care will be observed that all compartments are rendered as nearly gas tight as possible. CHAPTER VIII.-MEDICAL OFFICERS OF VESSELS. 51. In order to better protect the health of travellers by sea, to aid in the prevention of the international spread of disease and to facilitate the movement of international commerce and communication, the Signatory Governments are authorised in their discretion to licence physicians employed on vessels. 52. It is recommended that licence not issue unless the applicant therefor is a graduate in medicine from a duly chartered and recognised school of medicine, is the holder of an unrepealed licence to practise medicine, and has successfully passed an examination as to his moral and mental fitness to be the surgeon or medical officer of a vessel. Said examination shall be set by the directing head of the national health service, and shall require of the applicant a competent knowledge of medicine and surgery. Said directing head of the national health service may issue a licence to an applicant who successfully passes the examination, and may revoke said licence upon conviction of malpractice, 'unprofessional conduct, offences involving moral turpitude or infraction of any of the sanitary laws or regulations of any of the Signatory Governments based upon the provisions of this Code. 53. When duly licensed as aforesaid, said surgeons or medical officers of vessels may be utilised in aid of inspection as defined in this Code. CHAPTER IX.-THE PAN-AMERICAN SANITARY BUREAU. 54. The organisation, functions and duties of the PanAmerican Sanitary Bureau shall include those heretofore determined for the International Sanitary Bureau by the various International Sanitary and other Conferences of American Republics, and such additional administrative functions and duties as may be hereafter determined by PanAmerican Sanitary Conferences. 55. The Pan-American Sanitary Bureau shall be the central co-ordinating sanitary agency of the various member republics of the Pan-American Union, and the general collection and distribution centre of sanitary information to and from said republics. For this purpose it shall, from time to time, designate representatives to visit and confer with the sanitary authorities of the various Signatory Governments on public health matters, and such representatives shall be given all available sanitary information in the countries visited by them in the course of their official visits and conferences. 56. In addition, the Pan-American Sanitary Bureau shall perform the following specific functions: To supply to the sanitary authorities of the Signatory Governments, through its publications, or in other appropriate manner, all available information relative to the actual status of the communicable diseases of man, new invasions of such diseases, the sanitary measures undertaken, and the progress effected in the control or eradication of such diseases; new methods for combating disease; morbidity and mortality statistics; public health organisation and administration; progress in any of the branches of preventive medicine, and other pertinent information relative to sanitation and public health in any of its phases, including a bibliography of books and periodicals on public hygiene. In order to more efficiently discharge its functions, it may undertake co-operative epidemiological and other studies; may employ at headquarters and elsewhere experts for this purpose; may stimulate and facilitate scientific researches and the practical application of the results therefrom; and may accept gifts, benefactions and bequest, which shall be accounted for in the manner now provided for the maintenance funds of the Bureau. 57. The Pan-American Sanitary Bureau shall advise and consult with the sanitary authorities of the various Signatory Governments relative to public health problems, and the manner of interpreting and applying the provisions of this Code. 58. Officials of the National Health Services may be designated as representatives, ex officio, of the Pan-American Sanitary Bureau, in addition to their regular duties, and when so designated they may be empowered to act as sanitary representatives of one or more of the Signatory Governments when properly designated and accredited to so serve. 59. Upon request of the sanitary authorities of any of the Signatory Governments, the Pan-American Sanitary Bureau. is authorised to take the necessary preparatory steps to bring about an exchange of professors, medical and health officers, experts or advisers in public health of any of the sanitary sciences, for the purpose of mutual aid and advancement in the protection of the public health of the Signatory Governments. 60. For the purpose of discharging the functions and duties imposed upon the Pan-American Sanitary Bureau, a fund of not less than 50,000 dollars shall be collected by the Pan-American Union, apportioned among the Signatory Governments on the same basis as are the expenses of the Pan-American Union. CHAPTER X.-AIRCRAFT. 61. The provisions of this Convention shall apply to aircraft, and the Signatory Governments agree to designate landing places for aircraft which shall have the same status as quarantine anchorages. CHAPTER XI.-SANITARY CONVENTION OF WASHINGTON. 62. The provisions of Articles 5, 6, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 25, 30, 32, 33, 34, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 49 and 50 of the Pan-American Sanitary Convention concluded at Washington on the 14th October, 1905, (3) are hereby continued in full force and effect, except in so far as they may be in conflict with the provisions of this Convention. CHAPTER XII. Be it understood that this Code does not in any way abrogate or impair the validity or force of any existing Treaty, Convention or Agreement between any of the Signatory Governments and any other Government. CHAPTER XIII.-TRANSITORY DISPOSITION. 63. The Governments which may not have signed the present Convention are to be admitted to adherence thereto upon demand, notice of this adherence to be given through (3) Vol. CI, page 478. |