Section 2: Interpretation

2. Interpretation In this Act— “basement” means a cellar, vault or underground room; “building” includes a structure used for any purpose; “cast-off clothes” means a secondhand article of dress or wearing apparel, a secondhand blanket or sheet, if intended for sale or for other purposes of trade; P49 – 3 [Issue 1] Public Health Act “common lodging house” includes all premises occupied by more than 5 lodgers in return for payment; “consulting practice” means practice in consultation with another medical practitioner; “dairy” means a farmhouse, cowshed, milk store, milk shop or other place from which milk is supplied on, or for sale and in which milk is kept or used for purposes of sale or manufacture into butter or cheese for sale; “dairyman” means— (a) a cow keeper, purveyor of milk, or occupier of a dairy; (b) where a dairy is owned by a corporation or company, the secretary or other person actually managing the dairy; “dwelling” means a house, room, shed, hut, cave, tent, vehicle, vessel or boat or any other structure or place which is used by any human being for sleeping or in which any human being dwells; “environmental law” has the meaning assigned to it in the Environment Protection Act; “estate practice” means attendance on estates as provided under any labour enactment; “factory” means a building in which machinery is worked by steam, water, electricity or other mechanical power for the purposes of trade; “food”— (a) means an article used for food or drink by man, other than drugs or water, and an article which ordinarily enters into or is used in the composition or preparation of human food; and (b) includes flavouring matters and condiments; “house” includes a school, factory or other building in which persons are employed and the curtilage of any building or house; “house refuse” means ashes, cinders, live coals, rubbish, night soil and filth, but does not include trade refuse; “infected” means suffering from, or in the incubation stage of, or contaminated with, the infection of an infectious or communicable disease; “infectious or communicable disease” means a disease referred to in section 71; “isolated” means the segregation and the separation from, and interdiction of communication with others of, persons who are, or are suspected of being, infected; “keeper” means a person having or acting in the care or management of a common lodging house; [Issue 1] P49 – 4 Revised Laws of Mauritius “lodger” means an inmate occupying premises, and a man and his wife shall be reckoned as one lodger; “medical practitioner” means a person who is registered under the Medical Council Act; “Minister” means the Minister to whom responsibility for the subject of health is assigned; “occupier” includes— (a) where premises are subdivided and let to lodgers or tenants, the person receiving or collecting the rent payable by them; (b) where the person in occupation of any premises is a group or body of persons, corporate or incorporate, the individual entrusted with the management of the group or body; (c) the individual in actual occupation of the premises; and (d) in the case of a construction site, the contractor; “owner” means— (a) the person receiving or who would be entitled to receive the rent of any premises where the premises are or were let, whether on his own behalf or on that of any other person; (b) where the property belongs to the State, the Minister; (c) in all other cases of public property, the person to whom the management of the ted with the management of the group or body; (c) the individual in actual occupation of the premises; and (d) in the case of a construction site, the contractor; “owner” means— (a) the person receiving or who would be entitled to receive the rent of any premises where the premises are or were let, whether on his own behalf or on that of any other person; (b) where the property belongs to the State, the Minister; (c) in all other cases of public property, the person to whom the management of the property is entrusted; and (d) where the property is in the possession or under the management of a municipal council, the municipal council; “patient” means a person suffering from an infectious or communicable disease; “Permanent Secretary” means the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry responsible for the subject of health; “person having the custody”, in relation to a minor, means— (a) his father, legitimate or natural; (b) in the absence or incapacity of the father, his mother, legitimate or natural; (c) in the absence or incapacity of the mother, the person who has the physical custody of the minor; “premises” includes any land, house, building, structure, river, stream, bed of river or stream, pond, pool, marsh, drain, ditch, well, reservoir, canal, conduit, street or road, or open, covered or enclosed place, any vehicle, ship or floating craft; “public building” means a building used or constructed or adapted to be used as a place of public worship or as a hospital, college, school, theatre, public hall or as a public house of assembly for persons admitted by ticket or otherwise or used or adapted to be used for any other public purpose; P49 – 5 [Issue 1] Public Health Act “river”— (a) means a natural watercourse; and (b) includes a stream, rivulet, feeder, canal, conduit or drain and any enlargement caused by erosion of its banks or overflow of water on its borders; “Sanitary Authority” means a Government medical officer or a health inspector; “ship” means a sailing, motor or steam ship, vessel, lighter, hulk or boat; “street” includes a highway, and a public bridge, road, land, footway, square, Court, alley, or passage, whether a thoroughfare or not; “street refuse” means dust, dirt, rubbish, mud, road scrapings and filth; “trade premises” means any premises, other than a factory, used or intended to be used for carrying on a trade or business; “trade refuse” means the refuse of any trade, manufacture or business, or of any building materials; “venereal disease” means syphilis, gonorrhoea, or soft chancre. [S. 2 amended by Act 35 of 1982; Act 34 of 1991; Act 48 of 1991; s. 99 (9) (a) of Act 19 of 2002 w.e.f 1 December 2003; s. 3 of Act 30 of 2006 w.e.f. 23 December 2006.] 3. – 5. —