Every physician shall report in writing and, when practicable, by an acknowledged telephone communication to the department of public health, within 12 hours after having seen, professionally, each person having or whom he suspects of having any communicable disease, as defined in Section 19-60 and enumerated in Section 19-61.
The attending physician is authorized and it is made his duty to place the patient under the restrictions of quarantine described in this section in the case of each respective disease. The following data are required: Date of onset; disease or suspected disease; patient’s name, age, sex and color; patient’s address; school attended or place of employment; occupation; number in household, adults and children; probable source of infection or origin of disease; if disease is smallpox, type, number of times successfully vaccinated (in typhoid fever also), and approximate dates; and, if typhoid fever, salmonellosis, tuberculosis, dysenytery, undulant fever, scarlet fever, diphtheria, acute anterior polio-myelitis, cerebro-spinal meningitis, or septic sore throat, was patient, or is any member of the household, engaged in the production or handling of milk or any other food directly; name and address of person making report, and date of same. Such report shall be made within 12 hours after the case comes under observation.
Every hotel proprietor or manager, keeper of a boardinghouse or head of a family, having knowledge of any person infected with or who is suspected of being infected with any of the diseases enumerated in Section 19-61 of this article, and every teacher or principal of any public, private or parochial school, having knowledge of a pupil, teacher or employee infected with or who is suspected of being infected with any of the diseases enumerated in such section, shall report same to the department of public health within 12 hours of the time of his first knowledge of the nature of such disease; provided, that should the case have been reported by the attending physician, no further report will be required.
Persons with the premonitory symptoms of whooping cough, whether positively diagnosed as such or not, must be reported to the department of public health by the attending physician, by acknowledged telephone communication or in writing, within 24 hours of the time the patient is first seen. Conclusive proof that the case is suspected of being whooping cough by the attending physician will consist of his having advised the patient, its parent or guardian, as to the treatment of whooping cough; or of his having stated to the patient, its parent or guardian that he suspects whooping cough; or of his having administered pertussis vaccine, or any other treatment for whooping cough.
Whenever a person suspected of having any contagious disease as defined in Revised Civil Statutes, Section 4477, or in Section 19-60 and enumerated in Section 19-61, is reported to the department of public health, the director of public health shall investigate same and if unable to make a diagnosis, shall placard the house with a placard bearing the words “Suspected Contagious Disease Within,” and shall institute the type of quarantine applicable to the disease suspected until such time as diagnosis is made, or until the case is declared no longer contagious.
Whenever a physician is called to attend a patient who is suffering with diphtheria (membranous croup), he shall report the same to the department of public health by acknowledged telephone communication within one hour of the time the patient is first seen. If the attending physician suspects diphtheria, to the extent that he administers or advises the administration of a diphtheria anti-toxin, he shall report same to the department of public health by acknowledged telephone communication within one hour of the time the anti-toxin is administered or advised to be administered. (Ord. 4404)