13 Combined appointments Nothing in this or any other Act contained shall be construed as precluding any person from holding at the same time an appointment as— (a) Government medical officer and medical officer of health to one or more local authorities; or (b) medical officer of health to two or more local authorities; or (c) health inspector for the State and one or more local authorities or for two or more local authorities. 14 Duties of local authorities Every local authority shall take all lawful and necessary precautions for the prevention of the occurence, or for dealing with the outbreak or prevalence, of any infectious or communicable or contagious diseases, and shall exercise the powers and perform the duties conferred or imposed on it by this Act or by any other enactment. 15 Health committees (1) A local authority may establish a committee, to be known as a health committee, for the better administration of the duties imposed on the local authority by section fourteen. (2) Notwithstanding subsection (1)— (a) the State and one or more local authorities; or (b) two or more local authorities; may combine to establish jointly a health committee referred to in subsection (1). (3) The Minister may, after consultation with the local authority or authorities concerned, make such regulations as he may deem expedient to give force and effect to this section and such regulations may provide for all or any of the following matters— (a) the membership of a health committee, including the number of members to be appointed and the method of appointment of members by the local authority concerned or, in the case of a health committee referred to in subsection (2), by each local authority concerned and, if the State is a party to the establishment of the health committee, by the Minister; (b) the power of a health committee to co-opt persons with special knowledge or skill to serve on the committee; (c) the method of financing the activities of a health committee; (d) the powers of a health committee. 16 Defaulting local authorities (1) Whenever upon the report of the Chief Health Officer it appears to the Minister that the public health of any locality is in danger by the failure or refusal on the part of any local authority to exercise the powers or pe rform the duties devolving upon it under any enactment, or to take the lawful and necessary steps to obtain powers to deal by by-laws or regulations with the danger, the Minister may, after causing an inquiry to be held, at which the local authority shall have an opportunity of being heard, call upon the local authority forthwith to exercise any such powers or to perform properly any such duties, and if the local authority fails to comply the Minister may exercise such powers or perform such duties, and may authorize any person to take all necessary steps for that purpose in the same manner as if he were the local authority. (2) Any expenditure incurred by the State under subsection (1) may be recovered— (a) by action in a competent court against the local authority in default; or (b) by levying a special rate upon all rateable property within the district of the local authority in default; or (c) by deduction from any subsidy, grant or other moneys payable by the State to the local authority in default; or by all three or any two such methods of recovery. PART III NOTIFICATION O F INFECTIOUS DISEASES 17 Notifiable diseases For the purposes of this Act, the term “infectious disease” includes any of the following diseases— (a) chicken-pox; (b) diphtheria; (c) erysipelas; (d) pyaemia and septecaemia (puerperal); (e) scarlatina (or scarlet fever); (f) typhus fever; (g) plague; (h) Asiatic cholera; (i) typhoid or enteric fever (including para-typhoid fever); (j) undulant or Malta fever;