PUBLIC HEALTH ACT.

(b) "approved" and "prescribed" mean respectively approved or prescribed by the Minister or by the appointed officers or by rules under this Act, as the case may be;

(c) "basement" means any room which is more than one-third of its height measured from the level of the floor below the surface of any ground within 10 feet of the wall of that room, but which, as regards ventilation and light, conforms with all rules made under this Act;

(d) "board" means the Advisory Board of Health constituted under this Act;

(e) "building" includes any structure whatsoever whether permanent or temporary for whatsoever purpose used;

(f) "burial" means burial in the earth, interment or any other form of sepulture, or the cremation or any other mode of disposal of a dead body, and "buried" has a corresponding meaning;

(g) "cellar" means any room the floor of which is lower than any ground within 10 feet of that room and which as regards ventilation and light does not conform with all rules made under this Act, and includes any vault or underground room;

(h) "child" means a person who is under or appears to be under 18 years of age;

(i) "court" or "court of competent jurisdiction", except in section 66, means a magistrate's court over which presides a chief magistrate or a magistrate grade I or grade II, and every offence created under this Act shall be tried and punished in such court or in the High Court;

(j) "dairy" includes any farmhouse, cowshed, milkstall, milkshop or other place from which milk is supplied or in which milk is kept or used for purposes of sale or manufactured into butter, ghee, cheese, dried milk or condensed milk for sale;

(k) "dairyperson" includes any cowkeeper, purveyor of milk or occupier of a dairy, and in cases where a dairy is owned by a corporation or company, the secretary or other person actually managing the dairy;

(l) "district" means in relation to a local authority, the area which is under the jurisdiction of that local authority;

(m) "drain" means any drain, together with its appurtenances, used for the drainage of one building only, or of premises within the same curtilage and made merely for the purpose of communicating therefrom with a cesspool or other like receptacle for drainage, or with a sewer into which drainage of two or more buildings or premises occupied by different persons is conveyed and includes any pipe or channel whether opened or closed, used or intended to be used for drainage of land;

(n) "dwelling" means any house, room, shed, hut, cave, tent, vehicle, vessel or boat or any other structure or place, any portion of which is used by any human being for sleeping or in which any human being dwells;

(o) "erect" in reference to a dwelling or room includes "alter", "add to" or "convert into", and "erected" has a corresponding meaning;

(p) "factory" means any premises in which, or within the close or curtilage or precincts of which, steam, water, electricity or other mechanical power is used for the purposes of trade or manufacture;

(q) "food" means any article used for food or drink other than drugs or water, but includes ice, and any article which ordinarily enters into or is used in the composition or preparation of human food, and includes flavouring matters and condiments; "foodstuffs" has a similar meaning;

(r) "guardian" means any person having by reason of the death, illness, absence or inability of the parent or any other cause, the custody of a child;

(s) "health inspector" means a health or sanitary inspector of the Ministry of Health and includes any member of the subordinate medical staff or other person appointed by the chief medical officer to act as such within the district of one or more local authorities;

(t) "infected" means suffering from, or in the incubation stage of, or contaminated with the infection of, any infectious disease;

(u) "infectious disease" means any disease which can be communicated directly or indirectly by any person suffering from it to any other person;

(v) "isolation" means the segregation and the separation from and interdiction of communication with others of persons who are or are suspected of being infected;

(w) "isolated" has a corresponding meaning;

(x) "keeper of a lodging house" means any person keeping a hotel or lodging house;

(y) "land" includes any right over or in respect of land or any interest in land;

(z) "latrine" includes privy, urinal, earth closet and water closet;

(aa) "local authority" means—

(i) a local council as defined in the Local Governments Act;

(ii) in any area for which a sanitary board is appointed under section 4, the sanitary board;

(bb) "lodging house" means a building or part of a house, including its verandah, if any, which is let or sublet in lodgings or otherwise, either by storeys, by flats, by rooms or by portions of rooms;

(cc) "meat inspector" means any person appointed by the commissioner of veterinary services and animal industry for the purposes of meat inspection;

(dd) "medical observation" means the isolation or detention of persons for the purpose of medical examination;

(ee) "medical officer" means any registered medical practitioner in the employment of the Government but does not include a licensed medical practitioner;

(ff) "medical officer of health" means the chief medical officer or any medical officer in the employment of the Government and includes any member of the Government medical subordinate staff being a registered or licensed medical practitioner or other medical practitioner appointed by the chief medical officer to act as such in any district;

(gg) "medical practitioner" means a person who is registered or licensed as such under any law in force in Uganda governing the registration of medical practitioners;

(hh) "medical surveillance" means the keeping of a person under medical supervision. Persons under the surveillance may be required by the medical officer of health or any duly authorised officer to remain within a specified area or to attend for medical examination at specified places and times;

(ii) "municipality" means the district under the control of any city or municipality constituted under any empowering Act;

(jj) "occupier" includes any person in actual occupation of land or premises without regard to the title under which he or she occupies, and, in case of premises subdivided and let to lodgers or various tenants, the person receiving rent payable by the lodgers or tenants whether on his or her own account or as an agent for any person entitled to the rent or interested in it;

(kk) "offensive trade" includes the trade of blood boiler, bone boiler, fellmonger, soap boiler, tallow melter, tripe boiler, tanner, preparer or storer of hides, manure manufacturer and any other noxious or offensive trade, business or manufacture declared by the Minister by statutory instrument to be a noxious or offensive trade;

(ll) "owner" as regards immovable property, includes any person, other than the Government, receiving the rent or profits of any lands or premises from any tenant or occupier of the land or premises or who would receive the rent or profits if the land or premises were let whether on his or her own account or as agent for any person other than the Government, entitled to the rent or profits or interested in the rent or profits; the term includes any lessee or licensee of public land and any superintendent, overseer or manager of that lessee or licensee residing on the holding;

(mm) "parent" means and includes the father and mother of a child, whether legitimate or not;

(nn) "premises" includes any building or tent together with the land on which it is situated and the adjoining land used in connection with it, and includes any vehicle, conveyance or vessel;

(oo) "public building" means a building used or constructed or adapted to be used either ordinarily or occasionally as a place of public worship or as a theatre, public hall, or as a public place of assembly for persons admitted by ticket or otherwise, or used or adapted to be used for any other public purpose;

(pp) "public latrine" means any latrine to which the public are admitted on payment or otherwise;

(qq) "public vehicle" means every vehicle which plies or stands for hire, or is from time to time let out for hire or is intended to be let out for hire and includes any railway coach or aircraft;

(rr) "slaughterhouse" means any premises set apart for the purpose of a slaughterhouse by a local authority;

(ss) "stock" means and includes all domesticated animals of which the flesh or milk is used for human consumption;

(tt) "street" means any highway, road or sanitary lane, and includes any bridge, footway, square, court, alley or passage whether a thoroughfare or a part of one or not;

(uu) "town" means a town within the meaning of the Local Governments Act and includes any municipality created hereafter;

(vv) "trade premises" means any premises, other than a factory, used or intended to be used for carrying on any trade or business;

(ww) "vehicle" means every means of conveyance or of transit or parts thereof manufactured for use or capable of being used on land, water or in the air and in whatever way driven or propelled or carried;

(xx) "verandah" includes any stage, platform or portico projecting from the main wall of any building;

(yy) "veterinary officer" means the commissioner of veterinary services and animal industry or any veterinary officer in the employment of the Government or any member of the Government veterinary staff, appointed by the commissioner to act as such in any district;

(zz) "workshop" means any building or part of a building in which manual labour is exercised for purposes of trade.

PART II
ADMINISTRATION.

2. Power to direct inquiries.

The Minister may cause to be made such inquiries as he or she may see fit in relation to any matters concerning the public health in any place.

3. Power of persons directed to make inquiries.

When the Minister directs an inquiry to be made, the person directed to make the inquiry shall have free access to all books, plans, maps, documents and other things relevant to the inquiry and shall have in relation to witnesses and their examination and the production of documents similar powers to those conferred upon commissioners by the Commissions of Inquiry Act, and may enter and inspect any building, premises or place, the entry or inspection of which appears to him or her requisite for the purpose of the inquiry.

4. Appointment of sanitary boards.

The Minister may by statutory instrument establish any number of boards to be known as sanitary boards comprising such number of persons as the Minister may from time to time decide to exercise the powers conferred on local authorities by this Act in respect of any specified area and by such instrument the Minister may make provision, not inconsistent with this Act, for the conduct of the business of any board, the extent of its jurisdiction and generally for enabling it satisfactorily to exercise its powers.

5. General duties of local authorities.

Every local authority shall take all lawful, necessary and reasonably practicable measures for preventing the occurrence of, or for dealing with any outbreak or prevalence of, any infectious, communicable or preventable disease; to safeguard and promote the public health; and to exercise the powers and perform the duties in respect of the public health conferred or imposed by this Act or by any other law.

6. Proceedings on complaint to Minister of local authority in municipality or town.

(1) Whenever complaint is made to the Minister that the public health in any municipality or town is endangered by the failure or refusal on the part of the local authority to exercise the powers or perform the duties devolving upon it under this Act, the Minister, if satisfied after due inquiry that the local authority is guilty of default, may make an order directing the local authority to perform its duty in the matter of the complaint and prescribing a time for that performance.

(2) If the order given under subsection (1) is not obeyed within the time prescribed, the Minister may appoint some person to carry out the order.

7. Powers of person appointed under section 6.

Any person appointed under section 6 to perform the duty of a defaulting local authority shall, in the performance and for the purpose of that duty, have all the powers of the local authority other than the powers of levying rates vested in any local authority pursuant to the provision of any Act in that behalf; and the Minister may from time to time by order change any person so appointed.

8. Establishment of Advisory Board of Health.

(1) For the purpose of this Act, the Minister shall establish a body to be known as the Advisory Board of Health comprising the chief medical officer, or his or her authorised representative, as chairperson and such other members as the Minister may see fit to appoint, including at least three nonofficials resident in Uganda who shall be appointed for such period as the Minister may determine.

(2) The chairperson shall appoint such person as he or she may think fit to be secretary of the board.

(3) Notwithstanding subsections (1) and (2), the Minister may by order vary or cancel the membership of the board.

(4) The Minister shall make rules defining the functions of the board, the convening of its meetings, the quorum of the board, the allowances payable to members of the board and the circumstances in which any member shall vacate his or her membership.

(5) The names of all members appointed to the board shall be immediately notified in the Gazette, and any number of the Gazette containing a notice of any appointment shall be deemed sufficient evidence of that appointment for all purposes.

(6) If any member of the board is at any time prevented by absence or other cause from acting, the Minister may appoint some other person to replace that member until he or she shall return or be able to resume his or her functions.

9. Provisions of this Act in relation to other Acts.

(1) Except as is specially provided in this Act, the provisions of this Act shall be deemed to be in addition to and not in substitution for any provisions of any other Act which are not in conflict or inconsistent with this Act.

(2) If the provisions of any earlier Act are in conflict or inconsistent with this Act, the provisions of this Act shall prevail.

PART III
NOTIFICATION OF INFECTIOUS DISEASES.

10. Minister's power to declare notifiable diseases.

The Minister may by statutory order—

(a) declare that any disease shall be a notifiable disease for the purpose of this Act;

(b) declare that only such provisions of this Act as are mentioned in the order shall apply to any notifiable disease;

(c) restrict the provisions of this Act, as regards the notification of any disease, to the district of any local authority or to any area defined.

11. Power to make rules.

(1) The Minister may in respect of the notification of disease make rules as to—

(a) the duties of medical practitioners called in to visit or in any manner becoming aware of any notifiable disease;

(b) the duties of heads of families, parents or other persons having the care of or in attendance on any sick person;

(c) the duties of owners or occupiers of land, the owners or managers of mines, employers of labour, and all chiefs or headmen or others;

(d) the duties of the person in charge of any school, mission or missionary institution, orphanage or similar institution in regard to the reporting of such diseases or any other disease specified in the rules;

(e) the circumstances in which notification of particular diseases shall not be required;

(f) the duties of the local authorities in respect of keeping registers of records of notifications of disease;

(g) the duties of registrars of births and deaths in respect of furnishing a local authority or medical officer of health with notification of returns of births and deaths notified with the registrars;

(h) the forms to be used and the particulars to be furnished by medical practitioners and others when making the notifications to a local authority or medical officer of health;

(i) the forms to be used and the particulars to be furnished by a local authority and a medical officer of health when transmitting returns and reports to the chief medical officer;

(j) the fees to be paid by a local authority or the Government to medical practitioners for certificates provided in accordance with the rules,

and generally for better carrying out the provisions and attaining the objects of this Part of this Act.

(2) Any person who contravenes any such rule commits an offence.

Part IV
PREVENTIOM AND SUPPRESSION OF INFECTIOUS DISEASES

12. Powers of medical officer of health to inspect premises and persons.

A medical officer of health may at any time enter and inspect any premises in which he or she has reason to believe that any person suffering or who has recently suffered from any infectious disease is or has recently been present, or any inmate of which has recently been exposed to the infection of any infectious disease, and may medically examine any person in the premises for the purpose of ascertaining whether the person is suffering or has recently suffered from or is a carrier of any such disease and may cause a post-mortem examination to be made on any corpse for the purpose of ascertaining if the cause of death has been any infectious disease.

13. Powers of medical officer of health to cause premises to be disinfected.

(1) Where any medical officer of health is of opinion that the cleansing and disinfecting of any building or part of the building, and of any articles in the building likely to retain infection, would tend to prevent or check infectious disease, he or she shall give notice in writing to the owner or occupier of the building or part of the building specifying the steps to be taken to cleanse and disinfect the building or part of the building and the articles, within a time specified in the notice.

(2) If the person to whom notice is so given fails to comply with the notice, that person commits an offence and is liable on conviction before a court of competent jurisdiction to a fine not exceeding 200 shillings for every day during which he or she continues to make default; and a local authority may cause the building or part of the building and the articles to be cleansed and disinfected, and may recover the expenses incurred from the owner or occupier in default as a civil debt.

(3) Where the owner or occupier of any such building or part of the building is from poverty or otherwise unable, in the opinion of a local authority, effectually to carry out the requirements of this section, the authority may, without enforcing the requirements on that owner or occupier, with or without his or her consent enter, cleanse and disinfect the building or part of the building and the articles, and defray the expenses of the cleansing and disinfecting.

14. Destruction of infected building, bedding, etc.

(1) Any local authority may direct the destruction of any building, bedding, clothing or other articles which have been exposed to infection from any infectious disease, or in the opinion of the medical officer of health are infected, and that direction shall be sufficient authority for a person authorised to do so to destroy the same.

(2) A local authority shall give reasonable compensation for buildings and articles so destroyed.

(3) If any person is aggrieved by the amount of compensation awarded him or her by a local authority, that person shall have the right, and the local authority, shall agree, to a submission of the matter to arbitration in accordance with the Arbitration and Conciliation Act.

15. Damage to articles during disinfection.

When any article is damaged during disinfection no compensation shall be payable if suitable methods of disinfection have been employed and due care and all reasonable precautions have been taken to prevent unnecessary or avoidable damage.

16. No compensation for deprivation during disinfection.

Compensation shall not be payable in respect of the deprivation of the occupation or use of any building or part of a building or of the use of any article occasioned by disinfection, if no undue delay has occurred.

17. Provision of means of disinfection.

Any local authority may provide a proper place, with all necessary apparatus and attendance, for the disinfection of bedding, clothing or other articles which have become infected, and may cause any articles brought for disinfection to be dealt with free of charge.

18. Provision of conveyance for infected persons and things.

Any local authority may provide and maintain conveyances for the carriage of persons suffering from any infectious disease or for the removal of any infected bedding, clothing or other articles and may pay the expenses of carriage in such conveyance of any person so suffering to a hospital or other place of detention.

19. Removal to hospital of infected persons.

Where in the opinion of a medical officer of health any person certified by a medical practitioner to be suffering from an infectious disease is not accommodated or is not being treated or nursed in such manner as adequately to guard against the spread of the disease, the local authority may cause the person to be moved to the hospital or any temporary place which in the opinion of a medical officer of health is suitable for the reception of the infectious sick and to be detained there until the medical officer of health or any medical practitioner, duly authorised thereto by the chief medical officer, is satisfied that he or she is free from infection or can be discharged without danger to the public health.

20. Penalty on exposure of infected persons and things.

Any person who—

(a) while suffering from any infectious disease, wilfully exposes himself or herself without proper precautions against spreading the disease in any street, public building or place, shop, inn, hotel or public vehicle without previously notifying its owner, conductor or driver that he or she is so suffering;

(b) being in charge of any person so suffering, so exposes the sufferer; or

(c) gives, lends, sells, transmits or exposes, without previous disinfection, any bedding, clothing, rags or other things which have to his or her knowledge been exposed to infection from any such disease,

commits an offence and is liable on conviction to a fine not exceeding 300 shillings or to imprisonment for a period not exceeding three months or to both such fine and imprisonment; and a person who, while knowingly suffering from any such disease, enters any public vehicle without previously notifying the owner, conductor or driver that he or she is so suffering, shall, in addition, be ordered by the court to pay that owner, conductor or driver the amount of any loss and expenses he or she may incur in carrying into effect the provisions of this Act with respect to disinfection of the conveyance; except that no proceedings under this section shall be taken against persons transmitting with proper precautions any bedding, clothing, rags or other things for the purposes of having them disinfected.

21. Penalty on failing to provide for disinfection of public vehicle.

Every owner or driver of a public vehicle shall immediately provide for the disinfection of the public vehicle to the satisfaction of the medical officer of health, after it has to his or her knowledge conveyed any person suffering from an infectious disease, and if he or she fails to do so he or she commits an offence and is liable on conviction to a fine not exceeding 400 shillings, but no such owner or driver shall be required to convey any person so suffering until he or she has been paid a sum sufficient to cover any loss or expenses incurred by him or her in carrying into effect the provisions of this section.

22. Penalty for letting infected house.

(1) Any person who knowingly lets for hire any dwelling or premises or part of a dwelling or premises in which any person has been suffering from an infectious disease without having it, and all articles in it liable to retain infection, efficiently disinfected to the satisfaction of the medical officer of health as testified by a certificate signed by him or her commits an offence and is liable on conviction to a fine not exceeding 1,000 shillings.

(2) This section shall apply to any owner or keeper of a hotel or boarding house who lets any room or part of a room to any person.

23. Duty of person letting house lately infected to give true information.

Any person letting for hire or showing for the purpose of letting for hire any building or part of a building who on being questioned by any person negotiating for the hire of the house as to the fact of there being or within six weeks previously having been in it any person suffering from any infectious disease knowingly makes a false answer to the question commits an offence and is liable on conviction to a fine not exceeding 1,000 shillings.

24. Notification of death and removal of body of person dying of infectious disease.

(1) In every case of death from an infectious disease, it shall be the duty of the occupier of the building in which the death has occurred immediately to notify the local authority of the death; and on receipt of the notification the local authority shall at once transmit the information received to the nearest medical officer of health and make the best arrangements practicable, pending the removal of the body and the carrying out of thorough disinfection, for preventing the spread of the disease.

(2) It shall be an offence against this Act for the occupier of any premises to keep any dead body in any room in which food is kept or prepared or eaten or to keep any dead body for more than 24 hours in any room in which any person lives, sleeps or works, or to keep the body of any person who is known to have died of infectious disease in any place other than a mortuary or other place set apart for the keeping of dead bodies, without first obtaining the sanction of the local authority or a medical officer of health.

(3) Where any person dies of an infectious disease, it shall be an offence against this Act to remove the body except to a mortuary or for the purpose of immediate burial; and it shall be the duty of any person who removes the body to take it directly to the mortu

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