Page:Lltreaties-ustbv001.pdf/835

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SANITARY CONVENTION—JANUARY 17, 1912
825

1. Medical inspection.

2. The patients shall be immediately landed and isolated.

3. All persons who have been in contact with the patients and those whom the health authority of the port has reason to consider suspicious shall be landed if possible. They may be subjected either to observation,[1] or to surveillance,[2] or to observation followed by surveillance, and the total duration of these measures shall not exceed five days from the date of arrival.

It is within the discretion of the health authority of the port to apply whichever of these measures appears preferable to him according to the date of the last case, the condition of the vessel, and the local possibilities.

4. The soiled linen, wearing apparel, and other articles of the crew[3] and passengers which are considered by the health authority as being contaminated shall be disinfected.

5. The parts of the vessel which have been occupied by persons stricken with plague or which are considered by the health authority as being contaminated shall be disinfected.

6. The destruction of the rats on the vessel shall take place before or after the discharge of the cargo, avoiding injury to the cargo, the platings, and the engines as far as possible. The operation shall be performed as soon and as quickly as possible, and shall not in any event last over forty-eight hours.

In the case of vessels in ballast, this operation shall be performed as soon as possible before taking on cargo.

Art. 23. Vessels suspected of plague shall be subjected to the measures indicated under Nos. 1, 4, 5, and 6 of article 22.

Moreover, the crew and passengers may be subjected to a surveillance not to exceed five days from the arrival of the vessel. The landing of the crew may be forbidden during the same period except in connection with the service.

Art. 24. Vessels uninfected with plague shall be granted pratique immediately, whatever be the nature of their bills of health.

The only measures which the authority of the port of arrival may prescribe with regard to them shall be the following:

1. Medical inspection.

2. Disinfection of the soiled linen, wearing apparel, and other articles of


  1. By "observation" is meant the isolation of the passengers, either on board a vessel or at a sanitary station, before they are granted pratique. [Footnte in original.]
  2. By "surveillance" is meant that the passengers are not isolated and that they immediately obtain pratique, but that the attention of the authorities is called to them wherever they go and that they are subjeced to a medical examination to ascertain the state of their health. [Footnote in original.
  3. The term "crew" is applied to all persons who form or have formed part of the crew or of the servants on board the vessel, including stewards, waiters, "cafedji," etc. The term is to be construed in this sense wherever employed in the present Convention. [Footnote in original.]