International Health Regulations > Part IV : Health Measures and Procedure

Chapter I : General Provisions

Article 24

The health measures permitted by these Regulations are the maximum measures applicable to international traffic, which a State may require for the protection of its territory against the diseases subject to the Regulations.

Article 25

Health measures shall be initiated forthwith, completed without delay, and applied without discrimination.

Article 26

1)	Disinfection, disinsecting, deratting, and other sanitary operations shall be carried out so as:

a)	not to cause undue discomfort to any person, or injury to his health;

b)	not to produce any deleterious effect on the structure of a ship, an aircraft, or a vehicle, or on its operating equipment;

c)	to avoid all risk of fire.

2)	In carrying out such operations on cargo, goods, baggage, containers and other articles, every precaution shall be taken to avoid any damage.

3)	Where there are procedures or methods recommended by the Organization they should be employed.

Article 27

A health authority shall, when so requested, issue free of charge to the carrier a certificate specifying the measures applied to a ship, aircraft, train, road vehicle, other means of transport, or container, the parts thereof treated, the methods employed, and the reasons why the measures have been applied. In the case of an aircraft this information shall, on request, be entered instead in the Health Part of the Aircraft General Declaration.

2)	Similarly, a health authority shall, when so requested, issue free of charge:

a)	to any traveller a certificate specifying the date of his arrival or departure and the measures applied to him and his baggage;

b)	to the consignor, the consignee, and the carrier, or their respective agents, a certificate specifying the measures applied to any goods.

Article 28

A person under surveillance shall not be isolated and shall be permitted to move about freely. The health authority may require him to report to it, if necessary, at specified intervals during the period of surveillance. Except as limited by the provisions of Article 71, the health authority may also subject a person to medical investigation and make any inquiries which are necessary for ascertaining his state of health.

When a person under surveillance departs for another place, within or without the same territory, he shall inform the health authority, which shall immediately notify the health authority for the place to which the person is proceeding. On arrival the person shall report to that health authority which may apply the measure provided for in paragraph 1 of this article.

Article 29

Except in case of an emergency constituting a grave danger to public health, a ship or an aircraft, which is not infected or suspected of being infected with a disease subject to the Regulations, shall not on account of any other epidemic disease be refused free pratique by the health authority for a port or an airport; in particular it shall not be prevented from discharging or loading cargo or stores, or taking on fuel or water.

Article 30

A health authority may take all practicable measures to control the discharge from any ship or sewage and refuse which might contaminate the waters of a port, river or canal.

Chapter II : Health Measures on Departure

Article 31

1)	The health authority for a port or an airport or for the area in which a frontier post is situated shall take all practicable measures:

a)	to prevent the departure of any infected person or suspect;

b)	to prevent the introduction on board a ship, an aircraft, a train, a road vehicle, other means of transport, or container, of possible agents of infection or vectors of a disease subject to the Regulations.

2)	The health authority in an infected area may require a valid vaccination certificate from departing travellers.

The health authority referred to in paragraph 1 of this Article may, when it considers it necessary, medically examine any person before his departure on an international voyage. The time and place of this examination shall be arranged to take into account any other formalities, so as to facilitate his departure and to avoid delay.

Notwithstanding the provisions of subparagraph (a) of paragraph 1 of this Article, a person on an international voyage who on arrival is placed under surveillance may be allowed to continue his voyage. The health authority shall, in accordance with Article 28, notify by the most expeditious means the health authority for the place to which he is proceeding.

Chapter III : Health Measures Applicable between Ports or Airports of Departure and Arrival

Article 32

No matter capable of causing any epidemic disease shall be thrown or allowed to fall from an aircraft when it is in flight.

Article 33

1)	No health measure shall be applied by a State to any ship which passes through waters within its jurisdiction without calling at a port or on the coast.

2)	If for any reason such a call is made, the laws and regulations in force in the territory may be applied without exceeding, however, the provisions of these Regulations.

Article 34

No health measure, other than medical examination, shall be applied to a healthy ship, as specified in Part V, which passes through a maritime canal or waterway in the territory of a State on its way to a port in the territory of another State, unless such ship comes from an infected area or has on board any person coming from an infected area, within the incubation period of the disease with which the area is infected.

2)	The only measure which may be applied to such a ship coming from such an area or having such a person on board is the stationing on board, if necessary, of a sanitary guard to prevent all unauthorized contact between the ship and the shore, and to supervise the application of Article 30.

3)	A health authority shall permit any such ship to take on, under its control, fuel, water and stores.

4)	An infected or suspected ship which passes through a maritime canal or waterway may be treated as if it were calling at a port in the same territory.

Article 35

Notwithstanding any provision to the contrary in these Regulations except Article 76, no health measure, other than medical examination, shall be applied to:

a)	passengers and crew on board a healthy ship from which they do not disembark;

passengers and crew from a healthy aircraft who are in transit through a territory and who remain in a direct transit area of an airport of that territory, or, if the airport is not yet provided with such an area, who submit to the measures for segregation prescribed by the health authority in order to prevent the spread of disease; if such persons are obliged to leave the airport at which they disembark solely in order to continue their voyage from another airport in the vicinity of the first airport, no such measure shall be applied to them if the transfer is made under the control of the health authority or authorities.

Chapter IV : Health Measures on Arrival

Article 36

Whenever practicable States shall authorize granting of free pratique by radio to a ship or an aircraft when, on the basis of information received from it prior to its arrival, the health authority for the intended port or airport of arrival is of the opinion that its arrival will not result in the introduction or spread of a disease subject to the Regulations.

Article 37

1)	The health authority for a port, an airport, or a frontier station may subject to medical examination on arrival any ship, aircraft, train, road vehicle, other means of transport, or container, as well as any person arriving on an international voyage.

The farther health measures which may be applied to the ship, aircraft, train, road vehicle, other means of transport, and container shall be determined by the conditions which existed on board during the voyage or which exist at the time of the medical examination, without prejudice, however, to the measures which are permitted by these Regulations to be applied to the ship, aircraft, train, road vehicle, other means of transport, and container if it arrives from an infected area.

3)	Where a health administration has special problems which could constitute a grave danger to public health, it may require a person on an international voyage to give on arrival a destination address in writing.

Article 38

The application of the measures provided for in Part V which depend on arrival from an infected area as notified by the health administration concerned shall be limited to the ship, aircraft, train, road vehicle, or other means of transport, person, container or article as the case may be, arriving from such an area, provided that the health authority for the infected area is taking all measures necessary for checking the spread of the disease and is applying the measures provided for in paragraph 1 of Article 31.

Article 39

On arrival of a ship, an aircraft, a train, a road vehicle, or other means of transport, an infected person on board may be removed and isolated by the health authority. Such removal by the health authority shall be compulsory if it is required by the person in charge of the means of transport.

Article 40

1)	Apart from the provisions of Part V, a health authority may place under surveillance any suspect on an international voyage arriving by whatever means from an infected area. Such surveillance may be continued until the end of the appropriate period of incubation specified in Part V.

2)	Except where specifically provided for in these Regulations, isolation shall not be substituted for surveillance unless the health authority considers the risk of transmission of the infection by the suspect to be exceptionally serious.

Article 41

Any health measure, other than medical examination, which has been applied at a previous port or airport shall not be repeated at a subsequent port or airport, unless:

a)	after the departure of a ship or an aircraft from the port or airport where the measures were applied an incident of epidemiological significance calling for a further application of any such measure has occurred either in that port or airport or on board the ship or aircraft;

b)	the health authority for the subsequent port or airport has ascertained on the basis of definite evidence that the individual measure so applied was not substantially effective.

Article 42

Subject to Article 80, a ship or an aircraft shall not be prevented for health reasons from calling at any port or airport. If the port or airport is not equipped for applying the health measures which are permitted by these Regulations and which in the opinion of the health authority for the port or airport are required, such ship or aircraft may be ordered to proceed at its own risk to the nearest suitable port or airport convenient to the ship or aircraft.

Article 43

An aircraft shall not be considered as having come from an infected area if it has landed only in such an area at any sanitary airport which is not itself an infected area.

Article 44

Any person on board a healthy aircraft which has landed in an infected area, and the passengers and crew of which have complied with the conditions laid down in Article 35, shall not be considered as having come front such an area.

Article 45

Except as provided in paragraph 2 of this Article any ship or aircraft, which is unwilling to submit to the measures required by the health authority for the port or airport in accordance with these Regulations, shall be -allowed to depart forthwith, but it shall not during its voyage call at any other port or airport in the same territory. Such a ship or an aircraft shall nevertheless be permitted, while in quarantine, to take on fuel, water and stores. If, on medical examination, such a ship is found to be healthy, it shall not lose the benefit of Article 34.

2)	A ship or an aircraft arriving at a port or an airport situated in an area where the vector of yellow fever is present shall not, in the following circumstances, be allowed to depart and shall be subject to the measures required by the health authority in accordance with these Regulations:

a)	if the aircraft is infected with yellow fever;

b)	if the ship is infected with yellow fever, and Aedes aegypti have been found on board, and the medical examination shows that any infected person has not been isolated in good time.

Article 46

If, for reasons beyond the control of the pilot in command, an aircraft lands elsewhere than at an airport, or at an airport other than the airport at which the aircraft was due to land, the pilot in command or other person in charge shall make every effort to communicate without delay with the nearest health authority or any other public authority.

2)	As soon as the health authority has been informed of the landing it may take such action as is appropriate but in no case shall it exceed the measures permitted by these Regulations.

3)	Subject to paragraph 5 of this Article, and except for the purpose of communicating with any such health or public authority or with the permission of any such authority, no person on board the aircraft shall leave its vicinity and no cargo shall be removed from that vicinity.

4)	When any measure required by the health authority has been completed, the aircraft may, so far as health measures are concerned, proceed either to the airport at which it was due to land, or, if for technical reasons it cannot do so, to a conveniently situated airport.

5)	The pilot in command or other person in charge may take such emergency measures as may be necessary for the health and safety of passengers and crew.

Chapter V : Measures concerning the International Transport of Cargo, Goods, Baggage, and Mail

Article 47

Cargo and goods shall be submitted to the health measures provided for in these Regulations only when coming from infected areas and when the health authority has reason to believe that the cargo and goods may have become contaminated by the agent of a disease subject to the Regulations or may serve as a vehicle for the spread of any such disease.

2)	Apart from the measures provided for in Article 70, goods, other than live animals, in transit without transhipment shall not be subject to health measures or detained at any port, airport, or frontier.

3)	The issue of a certificate of disinfection of merchandise which is the subject of trade between two countries may be governed by bilateral agreements between the exporting and the importing countries.

Article 48

Except in the case of an infected person or suspect, baggage may be disinfected or disinfected only in the case of a person carrying infectious material or insect vectors of a disease subject to the Regulations.

Article 49

1)	Mail, newspapers, books, and other printed matter shall not be subject to any health measures.

2)	Postal parcels may be subject to health measures only if they contain:

a)	any of the foods referred to in paragraph 1 of Article 70 which the health authority has reason to believe comes from a cholera-infected area;

b)	linen, wearing apparel, or bedding, which has been used or soiled and to which the provisions of Part V are applicable;

c)	infectious materials; or

d)	living insects and other animals capable of being a vector of human disease if introduced or established.

Article 50

A health administration shall ensure as far as practicable that containers used in international traffic by rail, road, sea or air shall, in packing, be kept free of infectious material, vectors or rodents.

International Health Regulations Act, 1974 (Act No. 28 of 1974)

International Health Regulations

Part IV : Health Measures and Procedure