Public Health Act

This section gives the Act its short title: the Public Health Act.

The Minister may decide, by notice in the Gazette, which parts of Malawi this Act or any specified provisions apply to.

The Minister may, by notice in the Gazette, suspend or rescind how this Act or specified provisions apply in parts of Malawi where they already apply.

This section defines many terms used in the Act, including “adult,” “child,” and “medical surveillance.”

The Minister may direct inquiries about public health matters anywhere.

If the Minister directs an inquiry, the appointed person may access relevant records and places and has similar powers over witnesses and documents.

Every local authority must take reasonable and practicable measures to prevent or deal with outbreaks of certain diseases and promote public health.

If a local authority’s failure or refusal endangers public health, the Minister may order it to act by a set time and, if it does not comply, appoint someone else to do the work and recover the cost from the local authority.

A person appointed under the previous section may exercise the local authority’s powers for that duty, except the power to levy rates; the Minister may change the appointed person by order.

This Act is meant to operate alongside other Acts, except where a special provision here says otherwise.

If a Board of Governors is considered desirable for an assisted hospital or group of hospitals, the Minister must send proposals to the proprietor, and the proprietor must send proposals to the Minister.

An order creating a Board of Governors must set out the Board’s name, membership, management role, continuity rules, and related governance details.

This section says the Act applies to certain listed notifiable infectious diseases, unless a different expression is used.

The Minister may, by notice in the Gazette, declare certain infectious diseases notifiable and limit which Act provisions apply, including limiting notification rules to a district or defined area.

Certain people must notify the nearest medical officer of health about notifiable infectious diseases, and medical practitioners have extra reporting duties.

The Minister may make regulations about notifying infectious diseases, and anyone who breaks or fails to follow those regulations commits an offence.

The local authority must pay five shillings for each qualifying certificate sent by a medical practitioner, except a Government medical officer.

A medical officer of health may enter and inspect certain premises, medically examine persons there, and order a post-mortem examination in relation to infectious disease.

A local authority may cleanse and disinfect premises, and disinfect or destroy articles likely to retain infection, after notice and subject to the conditions in this section.

No compensation is payable for loss of use or occupation caused by disinfection if there has been no undue delay.

A local authority may provide disinfection facilities for infected bedding, clothing, and other articles, and may treat articles brought for disinfection free of charge.

A local authority may provide and maintain transport for people with infectious diseases, and may pay the transport expenses to a hospital or detention place.

A local authority may order a person with an infectious disease to be removed to a suitable hospital and detained there if certain health-risk conditions are met.

People who have an infectious disease must not expose themselves or others, handle contaminated items without disinfection, or enter a public vehicle without notifying the owner or driver. Violations can lead to a £15 fine, three months’ imprisonment, and, for some vehicle cases, payment of the owner’s or driver’s loss and expenses.

Vehicle owners or drivers must immediately notify the medical officer of health and arrange disinfection after the vehicle has carried someone with an infectious disease, or face a £20 fine.

A person who knowingly rents out a dwelling or premises recently occupied by someone with an infectious disease must have it and infection-prone items efficiently disinfected, or face a £50 fine.

A person letting or showing a building for hire must not knowingly give a false answer when asked whether someone with an infectious disease has been there recently.

If a death from an infectious disease occurs, the occupier must notify the local authority immediately, and bodies may only be handled or removed under the section’s restrictions.

Certain health and local officers may order removal of a body to a mortuary or other suitable place when the death was from an infectious disease and the body is being kept in unsafe or unsuitable circumstances. Obstructing an order under this section is an offence.

A local authority must remove and bury bodies of destitute persons and unclaimed bodies within its district.

The Minister may make rules for infectious-disease control, either for all infectious diseases or only specified ones.

This Part applies to listed diseases and to any other disease the Minister declares by notice to be a formidable epidemic or endemic disease.

The Minister may declare a threatened part of Malawi an infected area and make rules to control disease spread.

Local authorities must help carry out the Rules and may direct prosecutions or legal proceedings for wilful violation or neglect of those Rules.

A local authority, a medical officer of health, or an authorized person may enter premises or vehicles to carry out or supervise the execution of rules made by the Minister.

If someone notices unusual sickness or deaths among rats, mice, cats, dogs, or other animals that may spread plague or similar epidemic disease, they must report it immediately.

Local authorities must immediately report certain disease or animal mortality notifications to health authorities by telegraph or other fast means.

During a disease outbreak, the Secretary for Health may require people in control of land, premises, or urgently needed supplies to hand them over or make them available, with payment of a reasonable hire or purchase amount.

Anyone guilty of an offence under this Part is liable to a fine of £100 and imprisonment for 12 months.

The Minister may make border orders to prevent infectious disease entering Malawi, including controls on entry, animals or goods, and health measures for arriving persons and items.

A medical officer of health may order an infected person arriving in Malawi by railway train or other vehicle to be removed to hospital or a place of isolation.

A medical officer of health may isolate or supervise a person arriving in Malawi if the person may have been exposed to a notifiable disease, and must notify the local authority in each case.

Medical officers of health may board arriving railway trains or other vehicles in Malawi, inspect them, medically examine passengers, and ask questions about possible notifiable infectious disease exposure.

This section defines “protected person,” “public vaccinator,” “unprotected person,” and “vaccination” for this Part.

A parent or guardian must have a child born in Malawi successfully vaccinated by a public vaccinator between six and twelve months after birth, unless the child is unfit or has had smallpox.

The Minister may declare a compulsory vaccination area by Gazette notice, and affected unprotected adults or parents/guardians must ensure vaccination within the stated time or within one month when entering Malawi, subject to stated exceptions.

If a public vaccinator thinks an adult or child is not fit for vaccination, they must give a certificate to the adult or to the child's parent or guardian.

A public vaccinator must give a vaccination certificate after confirming that the vaccination was successful.

A public vaccinator must not charge the vaccinated person any fee or remuneration for a certificate under this Act or for the vaccination itself.

Institution superintendents must arrange vaccination for eligible inmates within 14 days of admission, where practicable.

Children cannot be admitted to or attend school unless proof is produced that they are protected persons; a school manager who allows this without proof commits an offence.

A person must not inoculate themselves or anyone else against smallpox using material taken from a person with smallpox or from a vaccine vesicle on another person.

The Minister can order vaccination during an outbreak or to prevent smallpox, and local authorities must implement the instructions.

The Minister may make rules about public vaccination and its enforcement.

This section says the Act’s references to venereal diseases include listed diseases and any other disease the Minister declares by Gazette notice.

People with a communicable venereal disease must not work in certain jobs or settings, and employers must not keep employing infected workers in child-care or food-handling roles unless they can prove they did not know and had no reasonable way to know. Employers may summarily dismiss an employee in specified circumstances, with wages paid up to the dismissal date.

This section bans most people from advertising or promoting cures or remedies for venereal diseases, sexual impotence, or related sexual complaints.

Only registered or licensed medical practitioners, State registered nurses, or people certified by the Secretary for Health may treat venereal disease for reward, prescribe remedies for it, or give advice about its treatment.

A person must not wilfully or through culpable negligence infect another person with venereal disease, or do or allow anything likely to cause such infection.

Anyone who breaks or fails to follow this Part can be fined £150 and jailed for two years; after a conviction, the court may also order forfeiture and destruction or disposal of certain specified items.

No person may cause a nuisance or allow one to exist on land or premises they own, occupy, or control.

Every local authority must keep its area clean and sanitary and act against nuisances or health-dangerous conditions.

Local authorities must take lawful, necessary, and reasonably practicable steps to prevent or fix health hazards from unsuitable dwellings, overcrowding, and certain factory or trade premises, and may pursue legal action against responsible persons.

This section lists conditions and things that count as nuisances if they are harmful, offensive, or likely to be injurious to health.

This section defines who counts as the author of a nuisance: the person whose act, default, or sufferance causes, maintains, or allows it, whether or not they are the owner or occupier.

A local authority or medical officer of health may serve a nuisance notice, and the responsible person must abate the nuisance within the time stated; in some cases the notice goes to the owner, and the local authority must abate it itself.

If a nuisance notice is ignored, the local authority can complain to court, and the court can order abatement, stop recurrence, fine the person, or in serious cases close the dwelling.

This section sets daily fines for failing to obey certain court orders about nuisance, and lets the local authority enter premises and abate the nuisance in some cases.

If the court is satisfied that the nuisance-causing person or the owner/occupier cannot be found, it may order the local authority to carry out the works.

If the court has twice within three months made overcrowding orders for the same premises, it may close the premises on a local authority’s application.

A local authority may sell removed nuisance-related items by public auction and use the sale money for nuisance-related expenses; any surplus must be paid to the owner on demand if the owner proves the claim within two years.

A local authority may take nuisance proceedings against one or more of several responsible persons, and the court may order abatement, prohibit further contributing acts, or impose a fine.

The Minister may order demolition of unfit premises, but must first give the owner notice and consider any representations.

The Minister may publish a Gazette notice prohibiting certain dwellings or rooms in defined areas, and contraventions can be fined.

The court may divide nuisance-related costs, and may order sale of premises or movable property to cover unpaid costs in certain cases.

A local authority or health officer may enter premises at reasonable times to check for nuisance; the local authority may also do necessary excavation or testing, and must restore the premises at its own expense if no nuisance is found.

The Minister may make rules and may give local authorities, owners, and others powers or duties for the listed health, sanitation, building, land, and market matters.

Rules about building construction may cover materials, room space, building height, chimneys, sanitation, drainage, water supply, stoves, sewers, notices, plans, inspections, sampling, sewer protection, and plumber/drain-layer licensing.

A local authority may require an owner to remove or alter work that does not comply with applicable Rules.

This section defines terms used in Part X, including sewage and sewerage terms, and sets a 100-foot rule for when a public sewer or water supply is treated as available.

A local authority may build and maintain public sewers and sewage disposal works, but outside its district it needs the Minister’s prior approval.

Every local authority must keep a public-sewer map at its offices for inspection free of charge.

A local authority may alter or close a public sewer, but if it cuts off a lawful user it must provide an equally effective sewer and reconnect the drains at its own expense.

No person may put certain harmful, hot, or flammable materials into public sewers or connected drains.

Owners or occupiers in a local authority district may connect drains or a private sewer to an available public sewer, but several discharge limits and distance/supply conditions apply.

Outside the district, owners or occupiers may use the authority’s public sewers on the same basis as section 82, but the authority may refuse a communication on reasonable terms and conditions.

Local authorities may build or repair lateral drains for public sewer connections, and building owners may do similar work only with the local authority’s prior consent and approval.

A person seeking a sewer connection must notify the local authority in writing, and the authority may refuse in certain cases. If no refusal notice is served, the authority must make the connection, subject to payment or security for the estimated cost.

A local authority must reject building plans unless drainage provision is satisfactory or the authority dispenses with drainage; a proposed drain is not satisfactory unless it connects to an available public sewer or another approved discharge place.

Local authorities must reject building plans unless adequate latrine accommodation will be provided, subject to stated exceptions and possible dispensation.

A local authority may require an owner, or sometimes an occupier, to fix drainage problems in an existing building.

A local authority may require an owner to replace non-water-closet latrines with water-closets and to apply to connect the drain to a public sewer.

A local authority may require an owner to provide enough latrines, or replace defective latrines, and it cannot require a water-closet unless water and sewer services are available, except to replace an existing water-closet.

A local authority may require the owner or occupier of a building to fix defective latrines that are a health nuisance but can be repaired without rebuilding.

A local authority may require nearby buildings to drain together through a private sewer, and it must allocate and notify how the costs are shared.

A local authority may advance money to an owner or occupier for drainage and sewerage expenses, with repayment by instalments.

The Minister may make rules about matters that must be prescribed, including how cesspools, earth-closets, privies, septic tanks, sewers, and similar structures are to be constructed.

Certain water collections and similar places that can breed mosquitoes are treated as nuisances.

Occupiers or owners must keep premises free of items that can retain water, including bottles, tins, boxes, shells, and trees or stumps in certain positions.

A person must not allow land or premises they own, occupy, or control to become overgrown with bush or long grass if a medical officer of health considers it likely to harbour mosquitoes.

Water stored in wells, barrels, tubs, buckets, tanks, or similar vessels must have a sufficient cover that is kept in good repair and screened to prevent mosquitoes.

Owners or occupiers of premises with a cesspool or septic tank must keep it properly protected or screened to stop mosquitoes, to the satisfaction of a medical officer of health.

Local authorities or health officers may destroy mosquito larvae found on premises and may take necessary steps to make standing water unsuitable for mosquito breeding.

If a health officer finds mosquito larvae in water on certain premises or items, the occupier, owner, or person in charge can be fined £5 for each collection of water.

Warehouses and similar buildings used to store food for trade must be made rat-proof, and owners may be required to fix disrepair or follow health officer instructions.

No person may live or sleep in a kitchen or room where foodstuffs for sale are prepared or stored. A medical officer of health may require notice-based corrective measures if the premises are being used contrary to this rule or may contaminate food.

Every local authority must take reasonable and practical measures to stop dangerous pollution of public water supplies, clean polluted supplies, and act against polluters if needed.

People must not sell, move, possess, handle, or display unwholesome food, and food handlers must take adequate steps to prevent infection or contamination.

Health officers, local authorities, or their written appointees may enter certain food premises during 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. to inspect food and seize it if it appears unfit for human use; a magistrate may order disposal, and the charged person must prove the food was not intended for human consumption.

A person found in possession of food liable to seizure under sections 106 and 107 is liable to a K200 fine and up to six months’ imprisonment.

The Minister may make rules about food, dairy, milk, meat, licensing, inspections, imports, exports, and related fees/forms, and must seek advice from the agriculture minister before making rules on dairies, dairy stock, dairymen, milk, and milk products.

The Minister may set quality, composition, condition, and minimum standards for foodstuffs, goods, or other articles. A person commits an offence if they import, manufacture, sell, or barter items that do not meet a standard made under this section.

A medical officer of health may take public-health protective action, including stopping certain people from working with milk or food and ordering the closure of stock-sheds, yards, or dairies.

The Minister may make orders to stop milk sales by repeat-offending dairymen and to require medical examinations in specified milk/food-handling settings.

The Minister may appoint cemetery or crematorium sites, and burials or cremations must follow local rules where such sites exist. No one may export a corpse from Malawi or cremate a corpse in Malawi without the required permission.

Some cemeteries are treated as authorized cemeteries, including cemeteries already in use and others authorized by the Minister with notice published in the Gazette.

You need a permit to exhume a body or remains, and the Minister may set conditions for that permit.

The Minister may order bodies or remains to be removed from graves for public works or public purposes, and must arrange re-interment and monument handling.

The Registrar General of Births, Deaths and Marriages must keep a record of certain exhumation-related permits and orders, and any person may inspect the record during office hours.

The Minister may publish a Gazette notice closing an authorized crematorium or cemetery from a specified time, and after that time no one may burn or bury a body there.

Where no crematorium is provided, cremations may be carried out at places and under conditions set by the local authority, with the concurrence of the medical officer of health.

Basements need written permission from the local authority before being lived in, occupied, let, sublet, or used for certain non-habitation purposes, and they must also be well lit, ventilated, dry, and ratproof.

The Minister may make regulations for lodging-houses, and no person may open or keep one open unless it is registered and the keeper is licensed by the local authority.

Nursing homes and similar institutions cannot be opened or kept open unless the premises are approved by the Secretary for Health and a permit is obtained.

The Minister may make rules to control and administer clinics or institutions caring for children, expectant mothers, or nursing mothers.

A local authority may, by public notice, ban washermen from washing clothes in their trade except at public wash-houses or other appointed places.

If the Minister is satisfied that cropping or irrigation in an area is unhealthy or insanitary, the Minister may prohibit it and may cancel related water permits or authorizations. The Minister may also make rules to protect inhabitants’ health from standing water and related drainage problems.

The Minister may arrange inspections and testing of certain imported or locally made vaccines and related substances, may block unsafe ones, and may make rules for this section.

Local authorities may have certain Act-related documents signed or authenticated by specified officers, and the Minister may prescribe the form of those documents by Rule.

This section allows service of notices, summonses, orders, and similar documents by several delivery methods, including at a residence, on premises, or by registered post.

The Secretary for Health, or someone he designates, may carry out or exercise duties or powers that this Act gives to medical officers of health or health officers.

A defect in the form of a notice or order under the Act does not make the administrative action invalid or unlawful, or by itself justify an exception in related legal proceedings, if the requirements are substantially and intelligibly set out.

Certain health and enforcement officers may enter premises at reasonable times to inspect or carry out work needed under the Act, and people must not obstruct them.

A notice requiring works must describe the works and the time for doing them, and a served person may appeal within two months.

If the person named in a notice does not do the required works in time, the local authority may do them, recover its reasonable costs, and the person may be fined.

A local authority may recover certain work expenses from the owner, make the amount a charge on the premises, and may agree to instalment payments with approval.

A local authority may add and recover an extra amount to cover customs duties, other charges, and departmental expenses when it is recovering works expenses under the Act.

A local authority may recover sums it is entitled to under the Act as a simple contract debt in a court of competent jurisdiction.

Local authorities and related officials are protected from personal liability for bona fide acts done to carry out this Act.

If no other penalty is expressly provided, a person who offends against, contravenes, or defaults under the Act or its Rules is liable to a £100 fine, plus £5 for each day the default continues.

If a company or corporation contravenes the Act or a rule made under it, the company’s secretary or manager may be summoned and held liable.

If proceedings are properly brought against several people for a joint act or default, it is enough to proceed against one or more of them.

A local authority may prosecute certain offences or defaults under the Act or Rules within or affecting its district, and after conviction its officer or an authorized person may recover fines and penalties as a civil judgment debt.

A local authority is not prevented from exercising powers or performing duties under this Act just because it must act or spend money outside its district.

The Minister may make rules to help preserve health, prevent disease, and carry out this Act.

Earlier rules and similar instruments remain in force if they are not inconsistent with this Act, until they are replaced under this Act.