Public Health Act

1. Interpretation

In this Act, and in any rules made under this Act, unless the context otherwise requires—(a)“adult” means a person who is over or appears to be over eighteen years of age;(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 ten 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 ten 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 eighteen 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.

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

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

9. Provisions of this Act in relation to other Acts

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.

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 postmortem 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

14. Destruction of infected building, bedding, etc.

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 three hundred 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 four hundred 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

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 one thousand shillings.

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

25. Removal and burial of body of person who has died of an infectious disease

26. Local authority to remove and bury unclaimed bodies

A local authority shall be responsible for the removal and burial of bodies of destitute persons and of unclaimed bodies.

27. Rules

The Minister may make rules applicable to all infectious diseases or only to such infectious diseases as may be specified in the rules, regarding the following matters—(a)the closing of any school or any place of public entertainment, where deemed necessary for the purpose of preventing the spread of any infectious disease, and the regulation and restriction of school attendance;(b)the duties of parents or guardians of school children who are suffering or have recently suffered from or been exposed to the infection of any infectious disease, and the duties of persons in charge of schools in respect of those children;(c)the establishment, maintenance, management and inspection of isolation hospitals, convalescent homes or other institutions for the accommodation or treatment of persons suffering from or who have recently suffered from any infectious disease, the removal of persons to those institutions and their discharge from them, and the classification and control of the patients and staff of those institutions;(d)the imposition and enforcement of quarantine or of medical observation and surveillance in respect of persons suffering or suspected to be suffering from infectious disease who are not removed to a hospital or place of isolation, the premises in which those persons are accommodated, those in charge of or in attendance on those persons, and other persons living in or visiting the premises or who may otherwise have been exposed to the infection of any such disease;(e)the duties in respect of the prevention of infectious disease and in respect of persons suffering or suspected to be suffering from infectious disease, of owners of land on which persons reside and of employers of labour, and of chiefs or headmen and others;(f)the measures to be taken for the prevention of the spread or eradication of cholera, human trypanosomiasis, typhoid fever, typhus, plague, acute poliomyelitis, tuberculosis or any other infectious disease requiring to be dealt with in a special manner;(g)the conveyance by rail or otherwise of persons suffering from, or bodies of persons who have died of, an infectious disease;(h)the prevention of the spread from any animal or the carcass or product of any animal to man, of rabies, glanders, anthrax, plague, tuberculosis, trichinosis or any other disease communicable by any animal, or the carcass or product of any animal, to man;(i)the prevention of the spread of disease by flies or other insects and the destruction and the removal of or the abatement of conditions permitting or favouring the prevalence or multiplication of insects;(j)the destruction of rodents and other vermin and the removal or abatement of conditions permitting or favouring the harbourage or multiplication of rodents and other vermin;(k)the prevention of the spread of ankylostomiasis, schistosomiasis or other disease in man caused by an animal or vegetable parasite;(l)the prevention of the spread of any infectious disease by the carrying on of any business, trade or occupation;(m)the prevention of the spread of any infectious disease by persons who, though not at the time suffering from the disease, are “carriers” of and liable to disseminate the infection of the disease, and the keeping under medical surveillance and the restriction of the movements of those persons;(n)the prohibition of spitting in public places or in public vehicles, except into receptacles provided for the purpose;(o)the regulation and restriction of any trade or occupation entailing special danger to the health of those engaged in it, whether from infectious disease or otherwise, and the institution of measures for preventing or limiting those dangers;(p)the establishment, maintenance and management of cleansing stations and the cleansing of dirty or verminous persons, the disinfection or fumigation of buildings, clothing or other articles which have been exposed to or are believed to be contaminated with the infection of any infectious disease, or which are dirty or verminous, and the prohibition of the carrying out of any fumigation which involves the use of poisonous gas except under licence;(q)the disposal of any refuse, waste matter or other matter or thing which has been contaminated with or exposed to the infection of any infectious disease;(r)the giving compulsorily of any information or the production compulsorily of any documentary or other evidence required for the purpose of tracing the source or preventing the spread of any infectious disease, and generally for better carrying out the provisions and attaining the objects and purposes of this Part of this Act.

28. Epidemic or endemic diseases

The provisions of this Part of this Act shall apply to smallpox, plague, Asiatic cholera, yellow fever, cerebrospinal meningitis, typhus, sleeping sickness or human trypanosomiasis and any other disease which the Minister may by statutory order declare to be a formidable epidemic disease for the purpose of this Part of this Act.

29. Power of Minister to make rules for prevention of disease

Whenever any part of Uganda appears to be threatened by any disease described in section 28, the Minister may by statutory order declare the part an infected area and may make rules for all or any of the following purposes—(a)for the speedy interment of the dead;(b)for house to house visitation;(c)for the provision of medical aid and accommodation, for the promotion of cleansing, ventilation and disinfection and for guarding against the spread of disease;(d)for preventing any person from leaving any infected area without undergoing all or any of the following: medical examination, disinfection, inoculation, vaccination or revaccination or passing a specified period in an observation camp or station;(e)for the formation of hospitals and observation camps or stations, and for placing in them persons who are suffering from or have been in contact with persons suffering from infectious disease;(f)for the destruction or disinfection of buildings, furniture, goods or other articles, which have been used by persons suffering from infectious disease, or which are likely to spread the infection;(g)for the removal of persons who are suffering from an infectious disease and persons who have been in contact with such persons;(h)for the removal of corpses;(i)for the destruction of rats, the means and precautions to be taken on shore or on board vessels for preventing them passing between vessels and from vessels to the shore or from the shore to vessels and the better prevention of the danger of spreading infection by rats;(j)for destruction of mosquitoes, the means and precautions to be taken in respect of aircraft arriving at or departing from Uganda and for preventing mosquitoes from passing from aircraft to land or from land to aircraft, and the better prevention of the danger of spreading infection by mosquitoes;(k)for the regulation of hospitals used for the reception of persons suffering from an infectious disease and of observation camps and stations;(l)for the removal and disinfection of articles which have been exposed to infection;(m)for prohibiting any person from living in any building or using any building for any purpose if in the opinion of the medical officer of health that use is liable to cause the spread of any infectious disease; any rules made under this section may give a medical officer of health power to prescribe the conditions on which that building may be used;(n)for any other purpose whether of the same kind or nature as the foregoing or not, having for its object the prevention, control or suppression of infectious diseases;(o)for the compulsory medical examination of persons suffering or suspected to be suffering from infectious disease;(p)for the registration of residents in an infected area;(q)for the registration of vehicles in an infected area;(r)for the compulsory confiscation and disposal of canoes and fishing gear used by any person in breach of any rule relating to the disease known as sleeping sickness;(s)for the control of woodcutting in an infected area;(t)for the restriction of residence in, immigration to or emigration from, an infected area;(u)for the control of fishing and hunting in an infected area, and may by statutory order declare all or any of the rules so made to be in force within the whole or any part of the infected area.

30. Local authorities to see to the execution of rules

31. Power of local authority or medical officer of health to enforce rules

Any local authority or medical officer of health or any person duly authorised by any local authority or medical officer of health shall have power of entry on any premises, vehicle or vessel, for the purpose of executing or superintending the execution of any rules so made by the Minister under section 29.

32. Notification of sickness or mortality in animals suspected of plague

33. Local authorities to report notification of formidable epidemic disease by expeditious means

Every local authority shall immediately report to the chief medical officer or the nearest medical officer of health, by telegraph or other expeditious means, particulars of every notification received by the authority of a case or suspected case of any formidable epidemic disease, or of any unusual sickness or mortality in animals made under section 32.

34. Chief medical officer may requisition buildings, equipment, etc.

35. Penalties for offences against Part V

Any person who commits an offence against this Part of this Act is liable on conviction to imprisonment for a period not exceeding twelve months or to a fine not exceeding two thousand shillings or to both such imprisonment and fine.

36. Powers to enforce precautions at borders

37. Definition of “public vaccinator” and “unprotected person”

For the purposes of this Part of this Act—(a)“public vaccinator” includes a public vaccinator appointed by the chief medical officer and any person appointed by the chief medical officer to assist or act for a public vaccinator and includes any medical officer of health;(b)“unprotected person” includes a child and means a person who has not been protected from smallpox by having had the disease either naturally or by inoculation or by having been successfully vaccinated, or who has not been certified under this Act to be insusceptible to vaccination.

38. Vaccination of children

The parent or guardian of every child born in Uganda shall, within twelve months from birth, unless the child is insusceptible or unfit or has suffered from smallpox, cause the child to be successfully vaccinated by a public vaccinator or medical practitioner, and the parent or guardian of every child shall procure one of the following certificates in the form prescribed, signed by a public vaccinator or medical practitioner—(a)certificate of successful vaccination;(b)certificate of insusceptibility to vaccination;(c)certificate of unfitness for vaccination;(d)certificate that the child has suffered from smallpox.

39. Vaccination of persons in or entering Uganda

40. If adult or child unfit for vaccination, certificate to be given

41. Certificate of insusceptibility to be given

42. Certificate to be given for successful vaccination

Every public vaccinator or medical practitioner who has vaccinated any adult or child, and has ascertained that the vaccination has been successful, shall deliver to that adult or to the parent or guardian of that child a certificate in the form in the Third Schedule to this Act, or to the like effect, certifying that the adult or child has been successfully vaccinated.

43. No fee to be charged for a certificate or for vaccination by public vaccinator

44. Vaccination of inmates of institutions

Every superintendent or person in charge of a leper asylum, mental hospital, chronic sick hospital, gaol, prison, reformatory or other similar institution shall where practicable, cause to be vaccinated within fourteen days following his or her admission to the institution every inmate of the institution who, being in a fit state of health to undergo vaccination, fails to prove satisfactorily that he or she has been successfully vaccinated within the three years immediately preceding; if that person is at the time unfit to undergo vaccination, he or she shall be vaccinated as soon as he or she is so fit.

45. School attendance

46. Supply of vaccine lymph and inoculation from arm to arm, etc. forbidden

Any person who inoculates himself or herself or any other person against smallpox with material taken from a person suffering from smallpox or from a vaccine vesicle on another person or by any method not prescribed by regulations commits an offence.

47. Emergency vaccination of population in areas threatened with smallpox

In the event of the occurrence or threatened outbreak of smallpox in any area—(a)a local authority or a medical officer of health may require any person who has or is suspected to have been in any way recently exposed to smallpox infection to be vaccinated or revaccinated immediately or may require the parent or guardian of any child who has or is suspected to have been so exposed to have the child vaccinated or revaccinated immediately. Any person failing to comply with that requirement commits an offence;(b)a local authority may, or when instructed by the Minister so to do shall, require all persons within an area defined to attend at centres according to instructions issued and to undergo inspection, vaccination or revaccination as circumstances may require. The instructions may be issued by notice in the press, or by notices posted in public places, or otherwise as may be deemed sufficient by the local authority. Nonattendance shall be deemed to be an offence;(c)any medical officer of health, public vaccinator or medical practitioner duly authorised by the chief medical officer may require any person in such an area to furnish satisfactory proof, including the exhibition of vaccination scars, that he or she has been successfully vaccinated within three years immediately preceding the date of the requirement. Any person who fails to furnish such proof as regards himself or herself or as regards any child of which he or she is the parent or guardian, and refuses to allow himself or herself or the child to be vaccinated, commits an offence.

48. Power to make rules

The Minister may make rules—(a)prescribing forms of certificates, notices, returns and books of record to be used in connection with public vaccination, and defining the information to be furnished in them, and requiring the furnishing and prescribing the manner of their use by registrars of births, public vaccinators, local authorities, medical practitioners, parents or guardians of children, persons in charge of schools, employers of labour and others;(b)conferring powers and imposing duties, in connection with the carrying out or enforcement of vaccination, on magistrates, administrative officers, members of a police force, or other Government officers, local authorities, persons in charge of schools, employers of labour, chiefs, headmen of locations and others;(c)prescribing and defining the duties, in connection with vaccination, of medical practitioners and public vaccinators employed by the Government;(d)prescribing the conditions under which vaccine lymph may be supplied free of charge to medical practitioners, local authorities and others;(e)prescribing the manner in which vaccination shall be performed and the precautions to be observed by those performing it and by the persons or the parents or the guardians of children vaccinated;(f)providing for the vaccination or revaccination of persons and assigning where deemed desirable the responsibility for carrying out the vaccination or revaccination to local authorities or employers of labour;(g)as to the application and enforcement of this Part of this Act to persons entering Uganda whether by land, water or air, and for requiring, where deemed necessary, the vaccination or revaccination of any person before entering; and(h)generally for better carrying out the provisions and attaining the objects and purposes of this Part of this Act.

49. Venereal diseases

The provisions of this Act, unless otherwise expressed, insofar as they concern venereal diseases, shall be deemed to apply to primary or secondary syphilis in its contagious forms, acute and chronic gonorrhoeal ophthalmia, soft chancre, lympho granuloma inguinale, granuloma venereum and any other disease that may be declared by the Minister by statutory instrument as a venereal disease.

50. Employment of infected persons

51. Publication of advertisements of cures

52. Prevention of the treatment of venereal disease otherwise than by medical practitioner

No person shall for reward either directly or indirectly, unless he or she is a duly registered or licensed medical practitioner, treat any person for venereal disease or suspected venereal disease or prescribe any remedy for venereal disease, or give any advice in connection with the treatment of it, whether the advice is given to the person to be treated or to any other person.

53. Offences and penalties

54. Nuisances prohibited

No person shall cause a nuisance, or shall suffer to exist on any land or premises owned or occupied by him or her or of which he or she is in charge, any nuisance or other condition liable to be injurious or dangerous to health.

55. Duties of local authorities to maintain cleanliness and prevent nuisances

Every local authority shall take all lawful, necessary and reasonably practicable measures for maintaining its area at all times in clean and sanitary condition, and for preventing the occurrence in the area of, or for remedying or causing to be remedied, any nuisance or condition liable to be injurious or dangerous to health and to take proceedings at law against any person causing or responsible for the continuance of any such nuisance or condition.

56. Duty of local authorities to prevent or remedy danger to health arising from unsuitable dwellings

57. What constitutes a nuisance

The following shall be deemed to be nuisances liable to be dealt with in the manner provided in this Part of this Act—(a)any vehicle in such a state or condition as to be injurious or dangerous to health;(b)any dwelling or premises or part of the dwelling or premises which is or are of such construction or in such a state or so situated or so dirty or so verminous or so damp as to be likely to be injurious or dangerous to health or which is or are liable to favour the spread of any infectious disease;(c)any street, road or any part thereof, any stream, pool, ditch, gutter, watercourse, sink, water tank, cistern, water closet, earth closet, privy, urinal, cesspool, soakaway pit, septic tank, cesspit, soilpipe, wastepipe, drain, sewer, garbage receptacle, dust bin, dung pit, refuse pit, slop tank, ash pit or manure heap, so foul or in such a state or so situated or constructed as to be offensive or to be likely to be injurious or dangerous to health;(d)any growth of weeds, long grass, trees, undergrowth, hedge, bush or vegetation of any kind which is injurious or dangerous to health, and any vegetable that of itself is dangerous to children or others either by its effluvia or through its leaves, seeds, fruits or any part of it being eaten;(e)any well or other source of water supply or any cistern or other receptacle for water, whether public or private, the water from which is used or is likely to be used by human beings for drinking or domestic purposes or in connection with any dairy or milkshop, or in connection with the manufacture or preparation of any article of food intended for human consumption, which is in a condition liable to render any such water injurious or dangerous to health;(f)any noxious matter, or waste water, flowing or discharged from any premises, wherever situated, into any public street, or into the gutter or side channel of any street, or into any gulley, swamp or watercourse, irrigation channel or bed thereof not approved for the reception of the discharge;(g)any collections of water, sewage, rubbish, refuse, ordure, or other fluid or solid substances which permit or facilitate the breeding or multiplication of animal or vegetable parasites of men or domestic animals, or of insects or of other agents, which are known to carry such parasites or which may otherwise cause or facilitate the infection of men or domestic animals by such parasites;(h)any collection of water in any well, pool, gutter, channel, depression, excavation, barrel, tub, bucket, or any other article, and found to contain any of the immature stages of the mosquito;(i)any cesspit, latrine, urinal, dung pit, or ash pit found to contain any of the immature stages of the mosquito;(j)any stable, cowshed or other building or premises used for keeping of animals or birds which is so constructed, situated, used or kept as to be offensive or which is injurious or dangerous to health;(k)any animal so kept as to be offensive or injurious to health;(l)any accumulation or deposit of refuse, offal, manure or other matter which is offensive or which is injurious or dangerous to health;(m)any accumulation of stones, timber or other material of any nature whatever if such is likely to harbour rats or other vermin;(n)any premises in such a state or condition and any building so constructed as to be likely to harbour rats;(o)any dwelling or premises which is so overcrowded as to be injurious or dangerous to the health of the inmates or is dilapidated or defective in lighting or ventilation, or is not provided with or is so situated that it cannot be provided with sanitary accommodation to the satisfaction of a medical officer of health;(p)any public or other building which is so situated, constructed, used or kept as to be unsafe or injurious or dangerous to health;(q)any occupied dwelling for which such a proper, sufficient and wholesome water supply is not available within a reasonable distance as in the circumstances it is possible to obtain;(r)any factory or trade premises not kept in a clean state and free from offensive smell arising from any drain, privy, water closet, earth closet or urinal, or not ventilated so as to destroy or render harmless and inoffensive as far as practicable any gases, vapours, dust or other impurities generated, or so overcrowded or so badly lighted or ventilated as to be injurious or dangerous to the health of those employed in the factory or trade premises;(s)any factory or trade premises causing or giving rise to smells or effluvia which are injurious or dangerous to health;(t)any area of land kept or permitted to remain in such a state as to be offensive, or liable to cause any infectious, communicable or preventable disease or injury or danger to health;(u)any chimney sending forth smoke in such quantity or in such manner as to be offensive or injurious or dangerous to health;(v)any cemetery, burial place, crematorium or other place of sepulture so situated or so crowded or otherwise so conducted as to be offensive or injurious or dangerous to health;(w)any gutter, drain, shoot, stack pipe, downspout, water tank or cistern which by reason of its insufficiency or its defective condition causes damp in any dwelling;(x)any deposit of material in or on any building or lane which causes damp in any building so as to be dangerous or injurious to health;(y)any dwelling, public building, trade premises, workshop or factory not provided with sufficient and sanitary latrines.

58. Author of nuisance

The author of a nuisance means the person by whose act, default or sufferance the nuisance is caused, exists or is continued, whether he or she is the owner or occupier or both owner and occupier or any other person.

59. Notice to remove nuisance

A local authority or a medical officer of health, if satisfied of the existence of a nuisance, may serve a notice on the author of the nuisance, or, if he or she cannot be found, then on the occupier or owner of the dwelling or premises on which the nuisance arises or continues, requiring him or her to abate it within the time specified in the notice, and, if the local authority or medical officer of health thinks it desirable, but not otherwise, any work to be executed to abate or prevent a recurrence of the nuisance may be also specified in the notice; except that—(a)where the nuisance arises from any want or defect of a structural character, or where the dwelling or premises are unoccupied, the notice shall be served on the owner;(b)where the author of the nuisance cannot be found or it is clear that the nuisance does not arise or continue by the act or default or sufferance of the occupier or owner of the dwelling or premises, the local authority shall remove the nuisance and may do what is necessary to prevent its recurrence.

60. Procedure in case owner fails to comply with notice

61. Penalties in relation to nuisances

62. Court may order local authority to execute works in certain cases

Whenever it appears to the satisfaction of the court that the person by whose act or default the nuisance arises, or that the owner or occupier of the premises, is not known or cannot be found, the court may at once order the local authority to execute the works directed by the order and the cost of executing the works shall be a charge on the property on which the nuisance exists.

63. Provision in case of two orders for overcrowding relating to the same house

Where any court of competent jurisdiction has twice within a period of three months issued an order as specified in section 60(2) relating to overcrowding of the same premises or part of the same premises the court may, on the application of a local authority, order the house to be closed for such period as the court may deem necessary.

64. Power of sale

Any matter or thing removed by a local authority in abating any nuisance under this Part of this Act may be sold by public auction; and the money arising from the sale may be retained by the local authority, and applied in payment of the expenses incurred by it in reference to the nuisance, and the surplus, if any, shall be paid, on demand, to the owner of the matter or thing if he or she establishes his or her claim to it within two years from the date of the sale, failing which the surplus shall become part of the public revenue.

65. Persons jointly responsible for nuisances may be proceeded against

66. Notice to remove nuisance

67. Prohibition in respect of back-to-back dwellings and rooms without through ventilation

68. Cost of execution of provisions relating to nuisances

69. Examination of premises

A local authority or a medical officer of health may enter any building or premises for the purpose of examining as to the existence of any nuisance in the building or premises at all reasonable times; and the local authority may if necessary open up the ground of the premises and cause the drains to be tested, or such other work to be done as may be necessary for the effectual examination of the premises; but if no nuisance is found to exist, the local authority shall restore the premises at its own expense.

70. Power of Minister to make rules

The Minister may make rules and may confer powers and impose duties in connection with the carrying out and enforcement of the rules on local authorities, owners and others as to—(a)the inspection of land, dwellings, buildings, factories and trade premises, and for securing keeping them clean and free from nuisance and so as not to endanger the health of the inmates or the public health;(b)the construction of buildings, the provision of proper lighting and ventilation and the prevention of overcrowding;(c)the periodical cleansing and whitewashing or other treatment of premises and the cleansing of land attached to the premises and the removal of rubbish or refuse therefrom;(d)the drainage of land, streets or premises, the disposal of offensive liquids and the removal and disposal of rubbish, refuse, manure and waste matters;(e)the standard or standards of purity of any liquid which, after treatment in any purification works, may be discharged from the purification works as effluent;(f)the keeping of animals or birds and the construction, cleanliness and drainage of places where animals or birds are kept;(g)the establishment and carrying on of offensive trades, factories or trade premises which are liable to cause offensive smells or effluvia, or to discharge liquid or other material liable to cause such smells or effluvia, or to pollute streams, or are otherwise liable to be a nuisance or injurious or dangerous to health, and for prohibiting the establishment or carrying on of such factories or trade premises in unsuitable localities or so as to be a nuisance or injurious or dangerous to health;(h)the subdivision and general layout of land intended to be used as building sites, the level, construction, number, direction and the width of streets and thoroughfares, the limitation of the number of dwellings or other buildings to be erected on such lands, the proportion of any building site which may be built upon and the establishment of zones within which different limitations shall apply and zones within which may be prohibited the establishment or conduct of occupations or trades likely to cause nuisance or annoyance to persons residing in the neighbourhood;(i)the inspection of the district of any local authority by that local authority with a view to ascertaining whether the lands and buildings thereon are in a state to be injurious or dangerous to health and the preparation, keeping and publication of such records as may be required;(j)the general control of houses let-in lodgings, for fixing the maximum number of lodgers, the minimum floor space allotted to each lodger, for the adequate ventilation and lighting and periodical cleansing and limewashing at stated intervals of the premises and for the provision of adequate sanitary appliances and other requirements having for their object the protection of the health of the lodgers or surrounding inhabitants;(k)the sanitary control of markets and market buildings.

71. Rules as to buildings

72. Power to require removal or alteration of work not in conformity with rules

73. Limitation of powers granted under this Part

74. Application

This Part of this Act or any sections in this Part shall apply to all local authorities.

75. Interpretation

Public sewers

76. Provision of public sewers and sewage disposal works

77. Duty of local authority to keep map showing public sewers

78. Power of local authority to alter or close public sewers

A local authority may alter the size or course of any public sewer vested in it, or may discontinue and prohibit the use of any such public sewer, either entirely, or for the purpose of soil and waste water drainage, or for the purpose of storm water drainage, but, before any person who is lawfully using the public sewer for any purpose is deprived by the local authority of the use of the sewer for that purpose, the local authority shall provide a public sewer equally effective for his or her use for that purpose and shall at its expense make his or her drains or sewers to communicate with the sewer so provided.

79. Certain matters not to be passed into sewers or drains

Right to connect with public sewers

80. Right of owners and occupiers within district of local authority to drain into public sewers

81. Use of public sewers by owners and occupiers without the district of a local authority

82. Sewer connections in streets and through private land

For the purpose of making or maintaining a communication with a public sewer, it shall be lawful for a local authority to construct or repair a lateral drain or, with the prior consent of the local authority and in such manner as it may approve, for the owner of any building to construct or repair a drain or private sewer, as the case may be, in, on or over any land, but where that land does not form a part of a street, the local authority or owner shall give to every owner or occupier of the land reasonable notice and shall be liable to make good or, at the option of the local authority or the owner undertaking the works, to pay for any damage done or occasioned by reason of the exercise of the power; but the works intended to be carried out in exercise of the powers conferred in this section shall not interfere unduly with the amenities or future development of the land or any adjacent land and, in case of dispute, a person aggrieved may appeal in the manner set out in section 127(6) and (7).

83. Procedure in regard to making communication with public sewers

Drainage and latrines of new buildings

84. New buildings to be provided with any necessary drains, etc.

85. Latrine accommodation to be provided for new buildings

Where plans of a building or of an extension of a building are, in accordance with any building rules, deposited with a local authority, the authority shall reject the plans unless either the plans and the prescribed particulars deposited with them show that the prescribed or sufficient and satisfactory latrine accommodation will be provided, or the authority is satisfied that in the case of a particular building or extension it may properly dispense with the provision of latrine accommodation; except that—(a)unless a sufficient water supply and public sewer are available, the authority shall not reject the plans on the ground that the proposed accommodation consists of or includes an earth closet or earth closets of a type approved by the authority; and(b)if the plans and the deposited particulars show that the proposed building or extension is likely to be used as a factory, workshop or workplace in which persons of both sexes will be employed, or will be in attendance, the authority shall reject the plans, unless either the authority is satisfied that sufficient and satisfactory separate latrine accommodation for persons of each sex will be provided, or that in the circumstances of the particular case it may properly dispense with the provision of such separate accommodation.

Drainage and latrines of existing buildings

86. Provisions as to drainage, etc. of existing buildings

87. Replacement of earth closets, etc. by water closets

If any existing building in the district of a local authority has a sufficient water supply and sewer available, the authority shall, by notice to the owner of the building, require that any latrines, other than water closets, provided for, or in connection with, the building shall be replaced by water closets, and that the owner shall make an application within a specified time to have his or her drains made to communicate with a public sewer under section 83, notwithstanding that the latrines are not insufficient in number and are not prejudicial to health or are not a nuisance.

88. Buildings having insufficient or defective latrines

If it appears to a local authority—(a)that any building is without sufficient latrine accommodation; or(b)that any latrines provided for or in connection with a building are in such a state as to be prejudicial to health or a nuisance and cannot without reconstruction be put into a satisfactory condition,the authority shall by notice to the owner of the building require him or her to provide the building with such latrines or additional latrines, or such substituted latrines, being in each case either water closets or earth closets of a type approved by the authority and as may be necessary; but unless a sufficient water supply and public sewer are available, the authority shall not require the provision of a water closet except in substitution for an existing water closet.

89. Buildings having defective latrines capable of repair

Drainage of buildings in combination

90. Drainage of buildings in combination

91. Payment of advances for defraying drainage expenses

92. Rules

The Minister may make rules for the purpose of prescribing any matters required to be prescribed and generally for carrying out the purposes of this Part of this Act.

93. Breeding places of mosquitoes to be nuisances

For the purposes of this Part of this Act—(a)any collection of water, sewage, rubbish, refuse, ordure or other fluid or solid substance, which permits or facilitates the breeding or multiplication of animal or vegetable parasites of human beings or domestic animals, or of insects or of other agents which are known to carry such parasites or which may otherwise cause or facilitate the infection of human beings or domestic animals by such parasites;(b)any collection of water in any well, pool, gutter, channel, depression, excavation, barrel, tub, bucket or any other article, found to contain any of the immature stages of the mosquito;(c)any cesspit, latrine, urinal, dung pit or ash pit found to contain any of the immature stages of the mosquito,shall be nuisances liable to be dealt with in the manner provided in this Act for the treatment of nuisances.

94. Yards to be kept free from bottles, whole or broken, etc.

95. Clearance of bush or long grass

No person shall within a municipality or town permit any premises or lands owned or occupied by him or her or over which he or she has control to become so overgrown with bush or long grass as, in the opinion of a medical officer of health, to be likely to harbour mosquitos.

96. Wells, etc. to be covered

97. Cesspits to be screened or protected

98. Larvae, etc. may be destroyed

Where any of the immature stages of the mosquito are found on any premises in any collection of water in any cesspit, well, pool, channel, barrel, tub, bucket, tank or any other vessel, or any bottle, whole or broken, whether fixed on a wall or not, tin, box, calabash, shell or any other article, or in a tree, fallen or standing, the local authority or medical officer of health may take immediate steps to destroy the immature stages of the mosquito by the application of oil or larvicide, or otherwise, and to take such action as is necessary to prevent the recurrence of the nuisance and to render any pools or collections of water unfit to become breeding places for mosquitoes.

99. Mere presence of mosquito larvae an offence

100. Limitation of powers granted under this Part

The provisions of section 73 shall apply, mutatis mutandis, to the exercise of any powers granted under this Part of this Act to any person other than a local authority.

101. Construction and regulation of buildings used for the storage of foodstuffs

102. No person shall reside or sleep in any room in which foodstuffs are stored, etc.

103. Duty of local authorities as to polluted water supplies

It shall be the duty of every local authority to take all lawful, necessary and reasonably practicable measures—(a)for preventing any pollution dangerous to health of any supply of water which the public within its district has a right to use and does use for drinking or domestic purposes, whether the supply is derived from sources within or beyond its district; and(b)for purifying any such supply which has become so polluted,and to take measures, including, if necessary, proceedings at law, against any person so polluting any such supply or polluting any stream so as to be a nuisance or danger to health.

104. Minister may make rules

105. Medical officer of health’s powers to make orders for protection of public health

Any medical officer of health, if he or she reasonably considers the action necessary for the protection of the public health, may—(a)require the medical examination of any person in any premises in which any milk or dairy produce or other article of food intended for sale is collected, kept, sold or exposed for sale, or of any person who is or has been engaged in the collection, preparation, keeping, conveyance or distribution of any such milk or produce or article;(b)prohibit the employment by any cowkeeper, dairyperson or purveyor of milk or other person in connection with the collection, preparation, storage, distribution or sale of milk or dairy produce or any article of food of any person who has been proved to be a carrier of the infection of typhoid or enteric fever or other infectious disease, while so infected.

106. Minister may make orders

The Minister may make statutory orders—(a)requiring the closing of any stock shed or yard, dairy or milk shop, or the exclusion from any stock shed or dairy premises of any animal, the milk from which is believed to have conveyed or to be liable to convey any infectious disease;(b)prohibiting the sale or exposure for sale of milk by any cowkeeper, dairyperson or purveyor of milk who has been three times convicted of offences under any laws or rules regarding the milk trade.

107. Cemeteries to be appointed

The Minister may select and appoint by statutory instrument sufficient and proper places to be the sites of and to be used as cemeteries or crematoria for municipalities and towns; and it shall be an offence, where such cemeteries or crematoria exist, to bury or burn the dead elsewhere within the municipality or town.

108. Authorised cemeteries

All cemeteries now being used as such and such other cemeteries as may be authorised by the Minister shall be deemed authorised cemeteries.

109. Permit to exhume

110. Exhumation needed for execution of public works may be ordered

111. Record of permit for exhumation

112. Closing of cemeteries by Minister

113. Cremations in places where no crematorium provided

In places where no crematorium is provided, it shall be permissible for cremations to be carried out at such places and under such conditions as are laid down by the local authority with the concurrence of the medical officer of health.

114. Basements not to be occupied without permission

115. Lodging houses

The Minister may make rules for the conduct and inspection of lodging houses.

116. Nursing homes

117. Maternity and child welfare

The Minister may make rules for the proper control of clinics or institutions open or kept open by any person for the welfare and care of children or the care of expectant or nursing mothers.

118. Provision of medical attention, etc. by employers for their staff

The Minister may make rules for the provision of hospital accommodation and medical attention, specifying the medicines, equipment and other requirements necessary, to be provided by employers of nondomestic labour for the proper care of all labourers employed by them.

119. Regulation of public washermen

Any local authority may by public notice prohibit the washing of clothes by washermen in the exercise of their calling except at public wash houses or at such other places as may be appointed for the purpose.

120. Control of irrigated land

121. Supervision of importation or manufacture of vaccines, etc.

122. Authentication of notices, etc.

123. Service of notices, etc.

Any notice, court summons, order or other document required or authorised to be served or issued under this Act may be served by delivering it at the residence of the person to whom it is addressed, or, where it is addressed to the owner or occupier of premises, by delivering it, or a true copy of it, to some person on the premises, or, if there is no person on the premises who can be served, by fixing it on some conspicuous part of the premises; it may also be served by post in a registered letter, and if so served shall prima facie be deemed to have been served at the time when the letter containing it would be delivered in the ordinary course of post, and in proving that service it shall be sufficient to prove that the notice, court summons, order or other document was properly addressed and put in the post.

124. Powers and duties of the officers of the Ministry of Health

The deputy chief medical officer may, with the authority and on behalf of the chief medical officer, discharge any of the duties or functions of the chief medical officer, and any duties imposed or powers conferred by this Act on medical officers of health or health inspectors may be carried out or exercised by the chief medical officer, deputy chief medical officer or any officer designated by the chief medical officer for that purpose.

125. Defect in form not to invalidate notices, etc.

No defect in the form of any notice or order made under this Act shall invalidate or render unlawful any administrative action taken or be a ground for exception to any legal proceedings which may be taken in the matter to which the notice or order relates, provided the requirements thereof are substantially and intelligibly set forth.

126. Powers of entry and inspection of premises and penalties for obstruction

127. Appeals against, and the enforcement of, notices requiring execution of works

128. Execution of works

129. Certain expenses recoverable from owners to be a charge on the premises; power to accept payment by installments

130. Power to make a charge in respect of establishment expenses

Where under this Act a local authority is empowered to execute works and to recover from any person the expenses incurred by it in so doing, it may include in, and recover as part of, the expenses an additional sum to cover customs duties and other charges and departmental expenses on such scale or in such manner as may be prescribed or as the Minister may direct.

131. Recovery of expenses, etc.

132. Protection of local authorities and their officers from personal liability

No matter or thing done and no contract entered into by any local authority, and no matter or thing done by any member of any local authority or by any officer of or acting on behalf of the local authority or by any other person acting under the direction of the local authority, shall, if the matter or thing were done or the contract entered into bona fide for the purpose of executing this Act, subject that member, officer or person personally to any action, liability, claim or demand.

133. Penalties where not expressly provided

Any person who commits an offence against or contravention of, or default in complying with, any provision of this Act or any rules made under it, is liable on conviction, if no penalty is expressly provided for the offence, contravention or default, to a fine not exceeding two thousand shillings, and, if the offence, contravention or default is of a continuing nature, to a further fine not exceeding sixty shillings for each day during which the default continues.

134. Liability of secretary or manager of company

Where a contravention of any of the provisions of this Act or any rules made under it is committed by any company or corporation, the secretary or manager of the company or corporation may be summoned and may be held liable for the contravention and its consequences.

135. Proceedings against several persons

Where proceedings under this Act are competent against several persons in respect of the joint act or default of those persons, it shall be sufficient to proceed against one or more of them without proceeding against the others.

136. Prosecutions

137. Power of local authority outside its district

Nothing in any written law specially governing any local authority shall be construed as preventing the local authority from exercising any power or performing any duty under this Act by reason only that in exercising the power or performing the duty it must do some act or thing or incur expenditure outside its district.

138. General power of Minister to make rules

The Minister may make rules generally for carrying out the purposes of this Act.