§ Mr. K. Robinsonasked the Minister of Health if he will set out in detail the emergency arrangements adopted at London Airport and other points of entry fallowing the recent smallpox outbreak, including the instructions to immigration officers, and the normal procedure for dealing with travellers entering Britain from areas where smallpox is endemic.
§ Mr. PowellCurrent arrangements are as follows. All port medical officers examine all travellers who have been in Pakistan in the previous fourteen days. Immigration officers have been instructed to co-operate with port medical officers in identifying such travellers. Such travellers who show no clinical evidence of recent vaccination are offered vaccination and isolated in hospital for fourteen days or until the vaccination has "taken". The names and destinations of all others are sent to the appropriate medical officers of health.
Normally, travellers arriving direct by air from an area where smallpox is endemic are issued, on arrival, with a yellow card telling them to call a doctor if they, or anyone in the house, falls ill within twenty-one days of arrival; the card also warns the doctor of the possibility of smallpox. The travellers are not medically examined, but if they are not in possession of a valid international certificate of vaccination against smallpox, their names and destinations are recorded.