Infectious Disease (Notification) Act 1889

Infectious Disease (Notification) Act 1889
Act of Parliament
	Parliament of the United Kingdom
Long title	An Act to provide for the Notification of Infectious Disease to Local Authorities.
Citation	52 & 53 Vict. c. 72
Territorial extent	England and Wales; Scotland; Ireland;
Dates
Royal assent	30 August 1889
Other legislation
Repealed by	Public Health etc. (Scotland) Act 2008
Status: Repealed
Text of statute as originally enacted

Last updated March 26, 2024

The Infectious Disease (Notification) Act 1889 (52 & 53 Vict. c. 72) first appeared on the UK national statute books in 1889.^[1] It was compulsory in London and optional in the rest of the country. It later became a mandatory law with the Infectious Disease (Notification) Extension Act 1899 (62 & 63 Vict. c. 8). These acts required householders and/or general practitioners to report cases of infectious disease to the local sanitary authority. The following diseases were covered by the acts: smallpox, cholera, diphtheria, membranous croup. erysipelas, scarlatina or scarlet fever, typhus fever, typhoid fever, enteric fever, relapsing fever, continued fever and puerperal fever. Householders or general practitioners who failed to notify a case of one of these diseases was liable to a fine of up to forty shillings.^[2]

The 1889 act came about after experiments in fifty provincial towns and cities that had adopted some form of infectious diseases notification through a local act of Parliament. These local laws were important forerunners of the national legislation, but they covered less than one-quarter of the country’s urban population and no rural sanitary authority had a local act in place in 1889. The 1889 act was widely taken up and by the time the mandatory 1899 act came into effect, notification reached almost all corners of the UK.

Following receipt of a notification certificate, the local sanitary authority's Medical Officer of Health could pursue existing public health laws, such as the Public Health Act 1875 (38 & 39 Vict. c. 55), to isolate patients in hospital, disinfect property and belongings, suspend schooling, and temporarily close businesses.^[3]

Related Research Articles

The Local Government Board (LGB) was a British Government supervisory body overseeing local administration in England and Wales from 1871 to 1919.

The UK statutory notification system for infectious diseases is a system whereby doctors are required to notify a "proper officer" of the local authority if they are presented with a case of a serious infectious disease such as diphtheria or measles. The proper officer then sends a report to the Centre for Infections of the Health Protection Agency (HPA) in Colindale, north London.

Sanitary districts were established in England and Wales in 1872 and in Ireland in 1878. The districts were of two types, based on existing structures:

A local board of health was a local authority in urban areas of England and Wales from 1848 to 1894. They were formed in response to cholera epidemics and were given powers to control sewers, clean the streets, regulate environmental health risks including slaughterhouses and ensure the proper supply of water to their districts. Local boards were eventually merged with the corporations of municipal boroughs in 1873, or became urban districts in 1894.

The UK Vaccination Acts of 1840, 1853, 1867 and 1898 were a series of legislative Acts passed by the Parliament of the United Kingdom regarding the vaccination policy of the country.

A notifiable disease is any disease that is required by law to be reported to government authorities. The collation of information allows the authorities to monitor the disease, and provides early warning of possible outbreaks. In the case of livestock diseases, there may also be the legal requirement to kill the infected livestock upon notification. Many governments have enacted regulations for reporting of both human and animal diseases.

Public Analysts are scientists in the British Isles whose principal task is to ensure the safety and correct description of food by testing for compliance with legislation. Most Public Analysts are also Agricultural Analysts who carry out similar work on animal feedingstuffs and fertilisers. Nowadays this includes checking that the food labelling is accurate. They also test drinking water, and may carry out chemical and biological tests on other consumer products. While much of the work is done by other scientists and technicians in the laboratory, the Public Analyst has legal responsibility for the accuracy of the work and the validity of any opinion expressed on the results reported. The UK-based Association of Public Analysts includes members with similar roles if different titles in other countries.

The Public Health Act 1875 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, one of the Public Health Acts, and a significant step in the advancement of public health in England.

An environmental health officer (EHO), also referred to as an environmental health practitioner (EHP) or public health inspector, is a person responsible for carrying out measures to protect public health, which includes the administration and enforcement of legislation related to environmental health and safety hazards.

Public Health Act is a stock short title used in the United Kingdom for legislation relating to public health.

A notifiable disease is one which the law requires to be reported to government authorities.

A fever hospital or isolation hospital is a hospital for infectious diseases such as Scarlet fever, Tuberculosis, Lassa fever and Smallpox. Their purpose is to treat affected people while isolating them from the general population. Early examples included the Liverpool Fever Hospital (1801) and the London Fever Hospital (1802). Other examples occurred elsewhere in the British Isles and India.

References

↑ "Infectious Disease (Notification) Act 1889", legislation.gov.uk , The National Archives, 1889 c. 72
↑ Mooney, Graham (1999). "Public Health versus Private Practice: The Contested Development of Compulsory Infectious Disease Notification in Late-Nineteenth-Century Britain". Bulletin of the History of Medicine. 73 (2): 238–267. doi:10.1353/bhm.1999.0087. PMID 10379089. S2CID 40987763 . Retrieved 16 October 2015.
↑ Mooney, Graham (2015). Intrusive Interventions: Public Health, Domestic Space, and Infectious Disease Surveillance in England, 1840-1914. Rochester, NY: University of Rochester Press. ISBN 9781580465274 . Retrieved 2 April 2016.

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.

[1] "Infectious Disease (Notification) Act 1889", legislation.gov.uk , The National Archives, 1889 c. 72

[2] Mooney, Graham (1999). "Public Health versus Private Practice: The Contested Development of Compulsory Infectious Disease Notification in Late-Nineteenth-Century Britain". Bulletin of the History of Medicine. 73 (2): 238–267. doi:10.1353/bhm.1999.0087. PMID 10379089. S2CID 40987763 . Retrieved 16 October 2015.

[3] Mooney, Graham (2015). Intrusive Interventions: Public Health, Domestic Space, and Infectious Disease Surveillance in England, 1840-1914. Rochester, NY: University of Rochester Press. ISBN 9781580465274 . Retrieved 2 April 2016.

[1]

[2]

[3]