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The Committee notes the information supplied by the Government in its report. It notes with interest that by means of Decree No. 0778 of 1987 the schedule of occupational diseases contained in section 201 of the Substantive Labour Code was amended and that the number of occupational diseases recognised as such was thereby raised from 18 to 40. The Committee notes, nevertheless, that item 35 of section 1 of Decree No. 0778, respecting work liable to cause anthrax infection, takes up the literal text of clause VIII, No. 6, of Decision No. 539 of 1 August 1974 of the ICSS, on which the Committee commented some years ago. In effect, the above text does not mention among the types of work liable to cause anthrax infection, as required by the Convention, the operations of "loading and unloading or transport of merchandise" in general which would thereby establish an automatic assumption of the occupational origin of the disease for workers (such as dockers) who are the victims of anthrax infection as a result of transporting or handling merchandise that had previously, without their knowledge, been in contact with infected animal carcasses or parts of such carcasses. The Committee reminds the Government that in 1983 it noted with satisfaction the amendment of Decision No. 539 of 1974 by means of Decision No. 027 of 13 July 1982, section 2 of which mentions, in accordance with the Convention, the above operations among the kinds of work likely to cause anthrax infection.

In these circumstances, the Committee hopes that the Government will take the necessary measures to amend item 35, section 1, of Decree No. 0778, which applies to workers who are not yet covered by the compulsory social security scheme, by adopting a similar provision to section 2 of Decision No. 027 of 13 July 1982.