Sec.19a-36-A8. General measures for control of reportable diseases

The local director of health, in instituting measures for the control of reportable diseases:

Investigation

(a) shall make, or cause to be made, such investigations as he may deem necessary and shall secure all such data as may assist him in establishing adequate control measures;

Isolation and orders

(b) shall establish and maintain quarantine, isolation or such other measures for control as are required by statute, the public health code or special instructions of the state department of health, and, when possible, shall issue his instructions and orders in writing or on printed forms;

Removal

(c) shall have the authority to set up proper isolation or quarantine of an affected person or persons, carrier or contact, when, in his opinion or in the opinion of the state commissioner of health, this is not or cannot be effectively maintained on the premises occupied by such person or persons by methods designated in this part; to remove or require the removal of such person or persons to a hospital or other proper place designated by him; or to employ such guards or officers as may be necessary to maintain effective isolation or quarantine;

Instruction

(d) shall provide, by himself or his authorized agent, for the specific instruction of cases, contacts, their attendants and all other persons affected, in the proper methods for the prevention of the spread of the disease and shall supply such information and literature as may be required by law or by the instructions of the state department of health;

Enforcement

(e) shall make, at intervals during the period of communicability, inquiry or investigation to satisfy himself that the measures instituted by him for the protection of others are being properly observed;

Laboratory tests

(f) shall, when the control or release of a case, contact or carrier of a reportable disease is dependent upon laboratory findings, require the specimens upon which such findings are based to be examined by the laboratory division of the state department of health or by a laboratory specifically approved for that purpose by the state department of health and shall, by himself or his authorized agent, secure and submit release cultures or specimens for examination; in cases of enteric diseases all release specimens shall be taken at least one week after specific therapy has been discontinued;

Schools—Isolation

(g) shall, in the event of an outbreak of a communicable disease in any public, private, parochial or church school, make a prompt and thorough investigation; control such an outbreak by individual examination of pupils, teachers and other persons associated with the outbreak; employ such other means as he deems necessary to determine the source of infection or to provide for the segregation of infected persons; in the event of an outbreak of a communicable disease in any school, require school physicians and school nurses to conform to the orders, regulations and restrictions issued by him;

Schools—Readmission

(h) shall, in the case of any school child who has been excluded from school for having been a case, contact or carrier of a communicable disease, by himself or his authorized agent, issue a permit for such child to re-enter school when in his opinion such child is no longer infectious;

Unusual disease

(i) shall, when an unusual or rare disease occurs in any part of the state or when any disease becomes so prevalent as to endanger the state as a whole, contact the state department of health for assistance, and shall cooperate with the representatives of the state department of health acting under the direction of the state commissioner of health;

Other measures

(j) shall introduce such other measures as he may deem advisable.

(Effective October 25, 1989)