The London Port Health Authority is responsible for controlling
infectious disease within its district. Infectious diseases such as
food poisoning, SARS, HIV, Tuberculosis and Noroviruses can be
spread by the crew of aircraft and ships and by passengers and
other visitors. By their very nature, infectious disease spreads
from person to person and can, if not dealt with expediently,
infect large numbers of people very quickly and it is our job to
investigate suspect and confirmed cases of infectious disease.
The principal legislation that involves ships and aircraft
arriving from outside the UK are the Public Health (Ships)
Regulations 1979 (as amended) and the Public Health (Aircraft)
Regulations 1979. Both these sets of Regulations reflect the
provisions of International Health Regulations 2005. For
Thames river pleasure craft the situation is slightly different,
the majority of infectious disease control work relates to
suspected and confirmed cases of food poisoning resulting from the
consumption of food contaminated with bacteria such as Salmonella,
Campylobacter, E. coli and Staphylococcus, or food
contaminated by banned food additives and toxic chemicals.
Ship Sanitation Control Certificates
Foreign going merchant vessels are required under the
International Health Regulations 2005 to be inspected at six
monthly intervals and issued with either a Ship Sanitation Control
Exemption Certificate or a Ship Sanitation Control Certificate
which records the inspection of the vessel and either the exemption
from controls or control measures applied.
These certificates replaced the Deratting Certificates and
Deratting Exemption Certificates, which are no longer valid.
Ports around the world have been authorised by the World Health
Organisation to issue the new certificates. London Port Health
Authority is designated for the issue of both certificates at all
ports and terminals within its district. To arrange an inspection
of a vessel and issue of a certificate, please
contact the appropriate port office giving as much notice
as possible.
The full list of authorised ports can be viewed on the WHO
website, view the list of authorised ports.
The fee for the certificates are reviewed by the Association of
Port Health Authorities and it recommends a
national rate to its members. Current charges can be
viewed on our
charges page.
Infectious Diseases
Masters of ships arriving in the London Port Health
Authority District must notify the London Port
Health Authority of any suspected infectious disease or death on
board the vessel other than by an accident.
Masters must also report the presence of
animals or captive birds and any illness or death in those animals
or birds.
Making a report is simple, all a Master of a vessel need do is
contact the Authority NOT more than 12 hours
before arriving in port (outer port limit) and NOT
less than 4 hours before arrival in port. This can
be done in several ways, via radio message to the relevant Port
Control, via email, via telephone or by fax. The Authority's
contact details can be found in the
contacts section of this website.
The Authority operates a 24 hour telephone standby system to
enable messages to be received from the Masters of vessels and the
Commanders of aircraft arriving at London City Airport who are
required to notify the presence of illness thought to be of an
infectious nature.
Click here to go to the contacts page.
Medical staff are on call to visit vessels and aircraft to
enable a diagnosis to be made of the illness and to recommend
further action to prevent the spread of the disease.
Masters of Vessels and ships surgeons (where applicable) should
complete a Maritime Declaration of Health which should then be
forwarded to nearest London Port Health Authority Dock Office or be
handed to a visiting Officer from the Authority.
Declarations must be fully completed whenever
there is a suspected or confirmed case or cases of infectious
disease on board a ship arriving in Port, or whenever there are
animals or captive birds on board the vessel and if they have shown
any mortality or signs of infectious disease. An Aircraft General
Declaration must be completed in similar circumstances.
Vessel arrivals
Detailed information concerning vessel arrivals in the Port
of London can be found on the
Port of London Authority's Website.
Specific control measures
For several years the City of London
Corporation acting in its role as London Port Health Authority
(LPHA) with responsibility for 150 kilometre (94 miles) of the
Tidal Thames has been greatly concerned about the discharge of
substantial volumes of untreated sewage into the
tideway. These concerns centre on potential health risks and
nuisance from offensive odour, sewage accumulation and dangerous
“sharps”.
In order to specifically define the health related
elements of this problem the Health Protection Agency have been
contracted by the City of London Port Health Authority to carry out
an epidemiological study of the risks to public health from
exposure to river Thames water, in recreational users of the Thames
tideway. If you wish to view information about this project
please visit
www.hpa-thamesstudy.org.uk
The final report was published on 25 September
2007, and the City’s Port Health and Environmental Services
Committee agreed the following recommendations:
-
Publicise the results of the study via a joint
press release with the Health Protection Agency and appropriate
media activity (The BBC has already shown an interest for a
programme on Radio 4 about London’s Sewers);
-
Actively lobby Thames Water Utilities and the
Environment Agency to ensure that appropriate action is taken to
minimise public health risks to recreational users of the river
Thames;
-
Continue with base level sampling, both to expand
and improve the current data set and knowledge which will improve
the ability to monitor trends with respect to differing weather
conditions and assist in predicting poor water quality;
-
Based on the data accrued in this study,
investigate the potential for the development systems to inform the
public of risks associated with tideway usage in a timely
manner;
-
Devise an appropriate sampling programme to
review the relative contribution of Mogden sewage treatment works
and its CSO to the water quality of the river;
-
Investigate and recommend future collaborative
research and sampling programmes in conjunction with the Health
Protection Agency and other stakeholders.
Download a PDF of the Thames study main
report (1.1mb)
Download a PDF of a summary of the Thames study
report (491kb)
Officers of the Authority work very closely with
officials from the Health Protection Agency (HPA) in carrying
out the role of health educators amongst visiting seafarers, often
during inspections of vessels. They are able to advise on infection
control in relation to a number of infectious diseases such as
Cholera, Tuberculosis, HIV and AIDS and other sexually
transmitted infections. Advisory leaflets are available in a number
of languages and copies can be obtained from our
Charlton office.
A booklet
"Management of Spa Pools - Controlling the Risks
of Infection" providing detailed information on controlling
the risk of legionella infection arising from poorly maintained
spa pools on vessels can be downloaded from the HPA website.
LPHA has also produced a leaflet offering practical advice on
legionella control.
Guidance for the management of Norovirus infection
in cruise ships can be dowloaded from the
HPA website.
Download a PDF of the LPHA Legionella
leaflet (80kb)
Additional advice and guidance on infectious
disease control is available from several sources including the UK
Health Protection Agency, the World Health Organisation (WHO) website, the
Centers For Disease
Control (CDC) website in the USA, and the
Pan American Health
Organisation (PAHO) website. If you are planning on
travel and want more information on infectious diseases and other
health matters please visit the National Travel Health Network and Centre
website.
The Merchant Navy Welfare Board's principal objectives are
assessing the welfare needs of merchant seafarers and their
dependants and the co-ordination of the work of the societies and
charitable organisations concerned with the provision of welfare
services to seafarers. For further information please visit
www.mnwb.org
The International Committee on Seafarers’ Welfare is an
international umbrella organisation dedicated to the implementation
of the ILO Instruments on Seafarers’ Welfare. The membership of the
ICSW covers a number of welfare organisations for seafarers. In
accordance with the WHO definition of health as a state of complete
physical, mental and social well-being, the ICSW runs a campaign on
health issues for seafarers. SHIP is a campaign on seven
health topics for seafarers, particularly individual Seafarers’
Health and Welfare Projects. The website
www.seafarershealth.org contains
information on topics such as food safety, travel risk precautions,
infectious and other diseases including sexually transmitted
infections.
-
Infectious diseases
- investigation
- Investigation of notifications of infectious diseases such as
food poisoning received from GPs, the public, businesses and other
local authorities.