VENEREAL DISEASES.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLVII, Issue 2907, 9 July 1925, Page 1

VENEREAL DISEASES.

REGULATIONS TO BE ENFORCED. NOTIFICATION AND TREATMENT. Regulations for the notification and treament of venereal disease as outlined by the Board of Health recently have now been approved by order of the Executive Council. These regulations, which arose out: of the recommendations of the Committee on venereal diseases to the Minister of Health and which were supported by the Board of Health, will he given effect to at an early date.

All persons suffering from venereal disease will lie required to submit, themselves for medical treatment.

If a patient fails to continue treatment until cured, it becomes the duty of the doctor to notify the case confidently to the DirectorGeneral of Health.

In addition power is given to the Director-General of Health when he has reason to believe that any person is suffering from a venereal disease in a. communicable form to require such person to submit himself for examination to some medical practitioner, who shall forward his report to the Director-General of Health. If the report is positive, the person must submit to treatment; and if the person fails to do so, he then becomes liable to a fine of £2O.

Power is also given to the Dir-ector-General of Health to issue detention orders requiring persons suffering from venereal disease to be detained in hospital, or other place, where they may lie effectively isolated. Any person so detained has a right to appeal to a Stipendiary Magistrate.

Special arrangements will be made for tree treatment where the circumstances of the person concerned require this. The DirectorGeneral has power to arrange for treatment at the cost of the State. Medical men are also required to give warning notices to all patients suffering from venereal disease. The warning notice is that they are required to. continue treatment; and if they fail, they render themselves liable to a line. If the patient is not married, the patient is warned against marrying until medically certified as cured, A line is provided for knowingly infecting' any other person; also for working in any capacity where the patient is likely to infect food for human consumption.

All persons concerned in the ad-

ministration of the regulations are required to maintain strict secrecy, and are forbidden to communicate any matter except as may be required in the performance of tlieii duties.

All notices and communications sent through the post are required to be marked “confidential.” The regulations of which the above is a summary, simply embody the recommendations of the committee on Venereal Diseases.