Special Provisions Regarding Formidable Epidemic Diseases 36 Formidable epidemic diseases This Act, unless otherwise expressed, in so far as it concerns formidable epidemic diseases, shall be deemed to apply to plague, Asiatic cholera, epidemic influenza and any other disease which the Minister may, by statutory instrument, declare to be a formidable epidemic disease for the purposes of this Act. 37 Notification of suspected cases of formidable epidemic diseases Medical practitioners, principals of schools, heads of families or householders, employers of labour, owners or occupiers of land or premises, chiefs, headmen and others shall report to the local authority or district administrator, as the case may be, the occurrence of any case of illness or death coming to their notice and suspected to be due to any formidable epidemic disease, or with a history or presenting symptoms or post-mortem appearances which might reasonably give grounds for such suspicion. Any person failing to make such report shall be guilty of an offence and liable to a fine not exceeding level five or to imprisonment for a period not exceeding six months or to both such fine and such imprisonment. [Section as amended by Act No. 22 of 2001] 38 Notification of sickness or mortality in animals Every person who becomes aware of any unusual sickness or mortality among rats, mice, cats, dogs or other animals susceptible to plague or other formidable epidemic disease, not due to poison or other obvious cause, shall immediately report the fact to the local authority. Any person who fails to make such report shall be guilty of an offence and liable to a fine not exceeding level five or to imprisonment for a period not exceeding six months or to both such fine and such imprisonment. [Section as amended by Act No. 22 of 2001] 39 Local authorities to report notification of formidable epidemic diseases by telegraph Every local authority shall immediately report to the Chief Health Officer, by telegraph or other expeditious means, particulars of every notification received by such authority of a case or suspected case of any formidable epidemic disease, or of any unusual sickness or mortality in animals, made under section thirty-eight. 40 Powers of Minister where local authority fails adequately to deal with any formidable epidemic disease Whenever upon the report of the Chief Health Officer it appears to the Minister that an outbreak of a formidable epidemic disease or a disease suspected of being such has occurred or is threatened within the district of a local authority and is not being investigated or dealt with efficiently and so adequately to safeguard public health, the Minister, notwithstanding any other provision of this Act, may inform the local authority of the measures which he considers should be taken in connection therewith, and if the local authority fails or is for any reason unable forthwith to carry out such measures to his satisfaction, may authorize the Chief Health Officer or any other local authority to take all necessary steps for dealing with the outbreak, and thereupon such officer or local authority shall, for the said purpose, possess all rights and powers of the local authority in default, subject to the obligations attaching to the exercise thereof, and any portion of the expenditure so incurred which is payable by the local authority may be recovered from the local authority in the manner described in subsection (2) of section sixteen. 41… [Section repealed by Act No. 22 of 2001] 42 Regulations regarding formidable epidemic diseases (1) In the case of the occurrence or threatened outbreak of any formidable epidemic disease, the Minister may make regulations as to all or any of the following matters, namely— (a) the imposition and enforcement of quarantine and the regulation and restriction of public traffic and of the movements of persons; (b) the closing of schools or the regulation and restriction of school attendance; (c) the closing of churches and Sunday schools and restriction of gatherings or meetings for the purpose of public worship; (d) the regulation or restriction or, where deemed necessary, the closing of any place or places of public entertainment, recreation or amusement, or where intoxicating liquor is sold by retail, and the regulation or restriction, or, where deemed necessary, the prohibition, of the convening, holding or attending of entertainments, assemblies, meetings or other public gatherings; (e) the prevention and remedying of overcrowding or the keeping of any dwelling or other building or the contents thereof in a dirty or insanitary or verminous condition; (f) the medical examination of persons who are suspected of being infected with, or who may have recently been exposed to the infection of, such disease, and of persons about to depart from any infected area, and the disinfection of their baggage and personal effects, and the detention of such persons until they have after such examination been certified to be free from any infectious disease and until their baggage and personal effects have been disinfected;