Australian maritime quarantine and the evolution of international agreements concerning quarantine.

  • John Cumpston
Date:
1913
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Licence: In copyright

Credit: Australian maritime quarantine and the evolution of international agreements concerning quarantine. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Library & Archives Service. The original may be consulted at London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Library & Archives Service.

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    medical inspection, and that of quarantine. Ab for the institution of a Permanent International Sanitary Commis- sion which should be intrusted with the study of epidemic diseases and their prevention, this was dealt with in a separate draft International Convention distinct from the other resolu- tions adopted by the Conference. This draft Convention was, however, not followed up, and accordingly the project of a permanent Commission was allowed to lapse. This Conference of Vienna is noteworthy, by reason of the fact that two features of International Sanitary Defence prominent to-day were then introduced for general discussion for the first time. These two fea- tures were the abolition of quarantine and the establishment of an Inter- national Sanitary Commission. Prior to this Conference, quarantine was understood to mean the detention, not only of an actually infected vessel, but also of any vessel coming from a port declared by the country of destination to be an infected port. Measures ol disinfection were understood as being part of the restrictive measures; but the vital part of quarantine was the actual detention of the vessel for an arbi- trary period fixed by the authorities, until all possibility of infection of those on shore was presumed to have been eliminated. During this period of quarantine, all communication between the vessel and the shore was absolutely forbidden. These measures constituted an enormous hindrance to commerce, and it was natural that strong pressure should be brought to bear on the authorities with the object of substituting some less burdensome measure. The adoption of the principle of '' medical inspection '' was the direct outcome of this movement; and successive Conferences have progressively enlarged the application of this modification of the severity of quarantine measures. The prin- ciple of '' medical inspection '' may be briefly stated as follows: — In place of the irrational method of enforcing quarantine detention on all vessels arriving from an infected country, irrespective of whether the vessels themselves had actually become infected or not, it was agreed that it would be quite safe if each vessel, on arrival at any port, were boarded and examined by a medical official from the shore, and quarantine measures applied only to those vessels found infected, al] those free from infection being allowed to continue without further restrictions. In the latter event, the vessel was awarded pratique. Washington, 1881.—This Conference was convoked by the United States Government, but the delegates were mostly the accredited Ministers or Consuls at Washington of the various countries, and there were very few medical experts. The primary objects of the Conference were the discussion of the prophylaxis of . yellow fever, and the introduction of a properly organized system of international notification of the occurrence of infectious disease. The system of dual notifica- tion (i.e., notification upon bills of health issued to every vessel of the condition of the port of departure at the moment the vessel leaves that port, and also an independent periodical notification by each country to the others of the sanitary con- dition of the country and its various towns) thus received for the first time the consideration due to its importance. The Conference of Washington differed from those which had pre- ceded it by reason of the fact that, for the first time, the principal disease studied was yellow fever. Hitherto, the Conferences had limited themselves to the study of cholera. This variation is notable, as it brings into prominence a fundamental principle which underlies all