Bill of health

Last updated

A bill of health is a document from officials of a port of departure indicating to the officials of the port of arrival which indicates whether it is likely that the ship is carrying a contagious disease, either literally on-board or via its crewmen or passengers.

Port maritime commercial facility

A port is a maritime commercial facility which may comprise one or more wharves where ships may dock to load and discharge passengers and cargo. Although usually situated on a sea coast or estuary, some ports, such as Hamburg, Manchester and Duluth, are many miles inland, with access from the sea via river or canal.

A contagious disease is a subset category of transmissible diseases, which are transmitted to other persons, either by physical contact with the person suffering the disease, or by casual contact with their secretions or objects touched by them or airborne route among other routes.

As defined in a consul's handbook from 1879:

A bill of health is a document issued by the consul or the public authorities of the port which a ship sails from, descriptive of the health of the port at the time of the vessel's clearance. A clean bill of health certifies that at the date of its issue no infectious disease was known to exist either in the port or its neighbourhood. A suspected or touched bill of health reports that rumours were in circulation that an infectious disease had appeared but that the rumour had not been confirmed by any known cases. A foul bill of health or the absence of a clean bill of health implies that the place the vessel cleared from was infected with a contagious disease. The two latter cases would render the vessel liable to quarantine. [1]

See also

Notes

  1. Lewis Joel, A consul's manual and shipowner's and shipmaster's practical guide in their transactions abroad, 1879 text at Google Books

Related Research Articles

Great Plague of London pandemic

The Great Plague, lasting from 1665 to 1666, was the last major epidemic of the bubonic plague to occur in England. It happened within the centuries-long time period of the Second Pandemic, an extended period of intermittent bubonic plague epidemics which originated in China in 1331, the first year of the Black Death, an outbreak which included other forms such as pneumonic plague, and lasted until 1750.

Quarantine Epidemiological intervention to prevent disease transmission

A quarantine is used to separate and restrict the movement of people; it is 'a restraint upon the activities or communication of persons or the transport of goods designed to prevent the spread of disease or pests,' for a certain period of time. This is often used in connection to disease and illness, such as those who may possibly have been exposed to a communicable disease, but do not have a confirmed medical diagnosis. The term is often erroneously used to mean medical isolation, which is "to separate ill persons who have a communicable disease from those who are healthy," and refers to patients whose diagnosis has been confirmed.

Infection invasion of a host by disease-causing organisms

Infection is the invasion of an organism's body tissues by disease-causing agents, their multiplication, and the reaction of host tissues to the infectious agents and the toxins they produce. Infectious disease, also known as transmissible disease or communicable disease, is illness resulting from an infection.

Asymptomatic carrier pathogen carrier without symptoms

An asymptomatic carrier is a person or other organism that has become infected with a pathogen, but who display no signs nor symptoms.

In medicine, public health, and biology, transmission is the passing of a pathogen causing communicable disease from an infected host individual or group to a particular individual or group, regardless of whether the other individual was previously infected.

John B. Hamilton Union United States Army soldier

John B. Hamilton was an American physician and soldier. He was appointed the second Surgeon General of the United States from 1879 to 1891.

Swinburne Island island in the United States of America

Swinburne Island is a 4-acre (1.6 ha) artificial island in the Lower New York Bay, off the South Beach of Staten Island, New York City. It was used for quarantine of immigrants. Swinburne Island is the smaller of two islands near South Beach, the other being Hoffman Island.

Infection control is the discipline concerned with preventing nosocomial or healthcare-associated infection, a practical sub-discipline of epidemiology. It is an essential, though often underrecognized and undersupported, part of the infrastructure of health care. Infection control and hospital epidemiology are akin to public health practice, practiced within the confines of a particular health-care delivery system rather than directed at society as a whole. Anti-infective agents include antibiotics, antibacterials, antifungals, antivirals and antiprotozoals.

Great Plague of Marseille

The Great Plague of Marseille was the last of the significant European outbreaks of bubonic plague. Arriving in Marseille, France in 1720, the disease killed a total of 100,000 people: 50,000 in the city during the next two years and another 50,000 to the north in surrounding provinces and towns.

North Head Quarantine Station

The North Head Quarantine Station is an heritage-listed former quarantine station and associated buildings that is now a tourist attraction at North Head Scenic Drive, on the north side of Sydney Harbour at North Head, near Manly, in the Northern Beaches Council local government area of New South Wales, Australia. It is also known as North Head Quarantine Station & Reserve and Quarantine Station & Reserve. The property is owned by the Office of Environment and Heritage, an agency of the Government of New South Wales. The buildings and site was added to the New South Wales State Heritage Register on 2 April 1999. The entire 277-hectare (680-acre) North Head site, including the Quarantine Station and associated buildings and facilities, was added to the Australian National Heritage List on 12 May 2006, and now forms part of the Sydney Harbour National Park.

Isolation (health care) various measures taken to prevent contagious diseases from being spread

In health care facilities, isolation represents one of several measures that can be taken to implement infection control: the prevention of contagious diseases from being spread from a patient to other patients, health care workers, and visitors, or from outsiders to a particular patient. Various forms of isolation exist, in some of which contact procedures are modified, and others in which the patient is kept away from all others. In a system devised, and periodically revised, by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), various levels of patient isolation comprise application of one or more formally described "precaution".

John E. W. Thompson American diplomat

John Edward West Thompson was an African-American physician and diplomat. His parents were immigrants to New York City from Haiti. After graduating from Yale University and studying medicine further in Europe, in 1884 Thompson became one of the first African-American physicians to practice in New York City.

Joseph J. Kinyoun American bacteriologist

Joseph James Kinyoun MD was founder and first director 1887–1899 of the United States' Hygienic Laboratory, the predecessor of the National Institutes of Health.

The San Francisco plague of 1900–1904 was an epidemic of bubonic plague centered on San Francisco's Chinatown. It was the first plague epidemic in the continental United States. The epidemic was recognized by medical authorities in March 1900, but its existence was denied for more than two years by California's Governor Henry Gage. His denial was based on business reasons, to protect the reputations of San Francisco and California and to prevent the loss of revenue due to quarantine. The failure to act quickly may have allowed the disease to establish itself among local animal populations. Federal authorities worked to prove that there was a major health problem, and they isolated the affected area; this undermined the credibility of Gage, and he lost the governorship in the 1902 elections. The new Governor George Pardee implemented a medical solution and the epidemic was stopped in 1904. There were 121 cases identified, including 119 deaths.

Immigration is the movement of an individual or group of peoples to a foreign country to live permanently. Since 1788, when the first British settlers arrived in Botany Bay, immigrants have travelled from all four corners of the world to establish a life in Australia. The reason for people or groups of peoples moving to Australia varies. Such reasons can be due to seeking work or even refuge from third world countries. The health of immigrants entering Australia varies depending on the individual's country of origin and the circumstance of which they came, as well as their state of travel to Australia. Immigrants are known to enter Australia both legally and illegally, and this can affect one's health immensely. Once in Australia, immigrants are given the opportunity to access a high quality of healthcare services, however, the usage of these services can differ dependent on the culture and place of birth of the individual. Researchers have proven this. Australia has strict health regulations that have to be met before one is allowed access into Australia and can determine if one is granted or denied such access. The quarantine process of immigrants into Australia has been in place since 1830, starting at the North Head Quarantine Station and continues all over Australia.

Cape Pallarenda Quarantine Station

Cape Pallarenda Quarantine Station is a heritage-listed former quarantine station at 1 The Esplanade, Pallarenda, City of Townsville, Queensland, Australia. It was built from 1915 to 1916. It is also known as Northern Regional Office, Department of Environment and Resource Management, Northern Regional Office, Environmental Protection Agency, and Cape Pallarenda Coastal Battery. It was added to the Queensland Heritage Register on 23 April 1999. The building is part of Cape Pallarenda Conservation Park.

A Foreign animal disease (FAD) is an animal disease or pest, whether terrestrial or aquatic, not known to exist in the United States or its territories. When these diseases can significantly affect human health or animal production and when there is significant economic cost for disease control and eradication efforts, they are considered a threat to the United States. Another term gaining preference to be used is Transboundary Animal Disease (TAD), which is defined as those epidemic diseases which are highly contagious or transmissible and have the potential for very rapid spread, irrespective of national borders, causing serious socio-economic and possibly public health consequences. An Emerging Animal Disease "may be defined as any terrestrial animal, aquatic animal, or zoonotic disease not yet known or characterized, or any known or characterized terrestrial animal or aquatic animal disease in the United States or its territories that changes or mutates in pathogenicity, communicability, or zoonotic potential to become a threat to terrestrial animals, aquatic animals, or humans."

This is a timeline of the United States Public Health Service Commissioned Corps and its predecessor, the Marine Hospital Service.

The National Board of Health (NBH) was a short lived institution that operated from 1879 to 1883 in the United States. It was created during the third Session of the 45th Congress, listed as chapter 202. The purpose of the NBH was to carryout a piece of legislation passed in Session I of the 45th Congress, Chapter 66. Chapter 66 and Chapter 202 were redundant pieces of legislature in all aspects but one: the implementation and oversight of the NBH.