VENEREAL DISEASES (TREATMENT) ACT (treatment)

VENEREAL DISEASES (TREATMENT)

CHAPTER 124

VENEREAL DISEASES (TREATMENT) ACT

To make provision for the treatment of Venereal Diseases.

(27th December, 1948) *

ACT LVIII of 1948, as amended by Legal Notice 46 of 1965; Acts: LVIII

of 1974, XXII of 1976 and XIII of 1983; and Legal Notice 409 of 2007.

The short title of this Act is the Venereal Diseases

(Treatment) Act.

In this Act -

"clearance certificate" means, in relation to any person, a

certificate in writing given by the medical officer contemplated in

subsection (1) of section 6 of this Act, certifying that that person

does not, at the date of the certificate, show signs of venereal

disease in a communicable form;

"prescribed" means as prescribed by the Chief Government

Medical Officer;

"special practitioner" means the medical officer in charge of the

venereal diseases department of the hospital or his assistant, or any

medical practitioner recognized by the Chief Government Medical

Officer as a special practitioner for the purposes of this Act;

"treatment" includes any periodical or other medical

examination;

"venereal disease" means gonorrhoea, syphilis or chancroid.

Subject to the provisions contained in section 4 of this Act,

any special practitioner who receives from a patient found by him

to be suffering from a venereal disease information as to a person

from whom the patient suspects that the disease was contracted

shall, unless, having regard to the time at which sexual relations

between the parties are alleged to have taken place and any other

information before him, the practitioner is of opinion that there is

no reasonable cause to believe that the disease was so contracted,

send a notice in the prescribed form to the Chief Government

Medical Officer giving the prescribed particulars as to the patient

and the disease from which the patient is suffering and as to the

person from whom it is suspected that the disease was contracted.

(1) Before seeking from the patient detailed particulars as

to the source of infection, the special practitioner shall explain to

the patient that all information supplied will be treated as strictly

confidential and that any communication made in good faith for the

purposes of this Act is exempt from civil or criminal proceedings.

He shall also inform the patient of his liability to severe penalties if

he should make a statement or furnish information as to the

suspected source of infection which he knows or has reasonable

*See Government Notice No. 816 of 28th December, 1948.

VENEREAL DISEASES (TREATMENT)

cause to believe to be false in a material particular.

(2) The special practitioner shall not send to the Chief

Government Medical Officer the notice mentioned in section 3 of

this Act before he has obtained the patient’s signature or mark to a

statement setting out that patient’s consent to the proposed

transmission of notice.

(1) If it appears to the Chief Government Medical Officer

that any person being a person specified in notices sent under

section 3 of this Act, is a person from whom two or more patients

suspect that they have contracted a venereal disease, he shall,

unless it appears to him that there is no reasonable cause to believe

that the disease was so contracted, serve on that person a notice in

the prescribed form -

(a) stating that, according to information received in

pursuance of this Act, there is reason to believe that

that person may require treatment in respect of

venereal disease; and

(b) requiring that person to attend for, and submit to,

medical examination by a medical officer deputed by

the said Chief Government Medical Officer for the

purpose, within such period and in such a place as may

be specified in the notice.

(2) Any such notice shall be served upon the person on whom it

is required to be served either personally or by a letter sent by

registered post to the last known place of residence or resort of the

person concerned. In the latter case the letter shall be deemed to

have been delivered in the ordinary course of the postal service,

unless proof to the contrary is produced.

(1) The medical officer by whom any person is examined

in pursuance of the requirements of any such notice as aforesaid

shall either send to the Chief Government Medical Officer a

clearance certificate in respect of the person examined, or serve

upon that person (hereinafter referred to as "the contact") a notice

in the prescribed form (hereinafter referred to as a "treatment

notice") requiring the contact to attend for, and submit to further

examination and, or in the alternative, treatment in accordance with

such directions as may be given by him and to continue to do so for

such time as the said medical officer shall consider necessary.

(2) The said medical officer shall inform the Chief Government

Medical Officer in writing of any treatment notice he may have

served. When, in his opinion, any contact who has been under his

treatment as required by this Act is no longer suffering from a

venereal disease in a communicable form and need no longer attend

for examination or for treatment, the said medical officer shall

inform the Chief Government Medical Officer accordingly.

Whenever the medical officer deputed for the purpose

hereunder by the Chief Government Medical Officer reports in

writing that he is of opinion that a contact, who is reasonably

suspected by him of continuing to spread infection, requires special

VENEREAL DISEASES (TREATMENT)

treatment in hospital, the Chief Government Medical Officer may

apply for an order by a magistrate directing that such contact be

admitted into and detained in a hospital at the cost of the

government for such a time, to be fixed in such order, or in a

subsequent order or orders, as may appear to the magistrate, after

having heard the opinion of the said medical officer, to be

necessary to prevent the spread of venereal disease.

If, in contravention of the requirements of any notice under

section 5 or of any treatment notice under section 6, a person or a

contact, as the case may be, fails to attend for or submit to medical

examination by the medical officer before whom that person is

required to attend, or to comply with any directions given to the

contact by such a medical officer, the latter shall forthwith report

the circumstances in writing to the Chief Government Medical

Officer, and that person or, as the case may be, that contact shall

thereby be guilty of an offence under this Act, and shall, on

conviction, be liable to a fine (multa) of not less than forty-six euro

and fifty-nine cents (46.59) but not exceeding two hundred and

thirty-two euro and ninety-four cents (232.94) or to imprisonment

for a term of from one to three months or to both such fine and such

imprisonment.

(1) A patient found by a special practitioner to be suffering

from a venereal disease who gives information as to the person

from whom the patient suspects that the disease was contracted,

knowing or having reasonable cause to believe the information so

given to be false in a material particular, shall be guilty of an

offence under this Act, and shall, on conviction, be liable to a fine

(multa) of not less than forty-six euro and fifty-nine cents (46.59)

but not exceeding two hundred and thirty-two euro and ninety-four

cents (232.94) or to imprisonment for a term of from one to three

months or to both such fine and such imprisonment. Proceedings

for an offence under this subsection shall not be taken except with

the consent of the Attorney General who shall, as far as he

considers proper in each case, seek to obtain the prior concurrence

of the person to whose detriment the false information was given.

(2) If any information as aforesaid is given in good faith, it

shall, for the purpose of the law relating to defamation, be deemed

to have been communicated in pursuance of a statutory duty.

(1) No person who obtains any information by virtue of

this Act shall, otherwise than in connection with the execution of

the provisions of this Act, disclose that information.

(2) Any person guilty of an offence under subsection (1) of this

section shall be liable, on conviction, to imprisonment for a term

not exceeding one year or to a fine (multa) of not less than two

hundred and thirty-two euro and ninety-four cents (232.94) but not

exceeding four hundred and sixty-five euro and eighty-seven cents

(465.87) or to both such imprisonment and such fine.

All judicial proceedings under this Act shall be held with

closed doors.