Preface This supersedes the Manual for Medical Examination of Aliens dated March 22, 1956, and its amendments. A copy is to be provided to each medical officer and quarantine inspector concerned. Arrangements have been made for consular officers to receive copies for distribution to panel physicians examining visa applicants where Public Health Service officers are not assigned. This edition consolidates provisions of the preceding edition and its amendments, for convenience. Some changes have been made in those provisions, including changes in sections on the venereal diseases. As soon as feasible, a revised edition will be published containing further changes in medical provisions. (Loose-leaf binders of the earlier editions should be retained for possible future use.) May 23, 1963 Introduction This manual is for the guidance of medical officers of the Public Health Service and others concerned with examining aliens either in foreign countries or in the continental United States, its territories, and its possessions. It is not a medical textbook;1 it is intended to serve as a source of information on special procedures involved in interpreting and administering the Regulations for the Medical Examination of Aliens as promulgated by the Surgeon General of the United States Public Health Service and approved by the Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare. Persons using this manual should be thoroughly familiar with those regulations, which are reproduced in chapter 1 for convenient reference. The law under authority of which the examinations are conducted includes the Public Health Service Act and the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952, as amended. Section 325 of the Public Health Service Act states: The Surgeon General shall provide for making, at places within the United States or in other countries, such physical and mental examinations of aliens as are required by the immigration laws, subject to administrative regulations prescribed by the Attorney General and medical regulations prescribed by the Surgeon General with the approval of the Secretary. Section 212 (a) of the Immigration and Nationality Act, as amended, states: Except as otherwise provided in this Act, the following classes of aliens shall be ineligible to receive visas and shall be excluded from admission into the United States: (1) Aliens who are feeble-minded; (2) Aliens who are insane; (3) Aliens who have had one or more attacks of insanity; (4) Aliens afflicted with psychopathic personality, epilepsy, or a mental defect; (5) Aliens who are narcotic drug addicts or chronic alcoholics; (6) Aliens who are afflicted with any dangerous contagious disease; 1 Since in the conduct of their work examiners are likely to encounter exotic diseases, they should consult approved textbooks in order to be thoroughly familiar with the manifestations of such diseases. |