Current through Pa Acts 2024-53, 2024-56 through 2024-111
(a) Every physician who treats or examines any person who is suffering from or who is suspected of having a communicable disease, or any person who is or who is suspected of being a carrier, shall make a prompt report of the disease in the manner prescribed by regulation to the local board or department of health which serves the municipality where the disease occurs or where the carrier resides, or to the department if so provided by regulation.(b) The department or local boards or departments of health may require the heads of hospitals and other institutions, the directors of laboratories, school authorities, the proprietors of hotels, roentgeologists, lodging houses, rooming houses or boarding houses, nurses, midwives, householders, and other persons having knowledge or suspicion of any communicable disease, to make a prompt report of the disease in a manner prescribed by regulation to the local board or department of health which serves the municipality where the disease occurs, or to the department if so provided by regulation.(c) Local boards or departments of health shall make reports of the diseases reported to them to the department at such times and in such manner as shall be provided for by regulation.(d) Every physician or every person in charge of any institution for the treatment of diseases shall be authorized, upon request of the secretary, to make reports of such diseases and conditions other than communicable diseases which in the opinion of the Advisory Health Board are needed to enable the secretary to determine and employ the most efficient and practical means to protect and to promote the health of the people by the prevention and control of such diseases and conditions other than communicable diseases. The reports shall be made upon forms prescribed by the secretary and shall be transmitted to the department or to local boards or departments of health as requested by the secretary.(e) In addition to the requirements under this section, during a proclamation of disaster emergency issued by the Governor that is based upon a communicable disease, any administrator of a health care facility or a personal care home who has knowledge that a patient or resident is suffering from a communicable disease related to the disaster emergency shall make a prompt report of the disease in the manner prescribed by regulation to the local board or department of health which serves the municipality where the patient or resident resides or to the department if so provided by regulation. Amended by P.L. TBD 2020 No. 112, § 2, eff. 11/3/2020.1956, April 23, P.L. (1955) 1510, § 4.