Interpretation

1 In this regulation:

"carrier" means a person who harbours, and who may disseminate, a specific infectious agent in the absence of discernible clinical disease;

"communicable disease" means an illness, due to a specific infectious agent or its toxic products, which arises through the transmission of that agent or its product

(a) directly from an infected person or animal, or

(b) indirectly through the agency of an intermediate host vector or the inanimate environment;

"contact" means a person who has been or is in association with an infected person or animal, or with a contaminated environment, and has had an opportunity of acquiring the infection;

"epidemic" means an occurrence of a disease within a community or region in excess of normal expectancy;

"food handler" means a person engaged in the preparation, manufacture, storage, serving or sale of food or drink where the food or drink itself is handled, but does not include a person who only handles completely packaged food or drink;

"infectious agent" means an organism capable of producing an infection or infectious disease;

"isolation" means the separation, for the period of communicability of the disease, of an infected person or animal from others in a place and under conditions to prevent the conveyance of the infectious agent to those others;

"laboratory" means a medical or clinical diagnostic facility, and for the purposes of section 2 (3) includes the Animal Health Centre, Ministry of Agriculture and Lands, Abbotsford, British Columbia;

"modified isolation" means

(a) the restriction of the infected person to his residence and the grounds surrounding his residence, or

(b) the limitation of freedom of movement of the infected person that is necessary in the opinion of the medical health officer or physician, as the case may be;

"physician" means a duly qualified medical practitioner;

"quarantine" means the limitation of freedom of movement of a susceptible person or domestic animal, suspected of being or known to have been exposed to a communicable disease, for a period of time equal to the longest usual incubation period of that disease from the last date of exposure;

"reportable communicable disease" means a disease

(a) listed in Schedule A or B, or

(b) which becomes epidemic or shows unusual features;

"strict isolation" means the complete segregation, in a room used for no other purpose, of an infected person from all persons except

(a) the physicians and nurses in attendance, and

(b) those persons authorized by the medical health officer;

"susceptible person" means a person not possessing adequate resistance against a specific infectious agent.

[am. B.C. Reg. 43/2007, s. (a).]

Reportable disease

2 (1)  Repealed. [B.C. Reg. 49/2009, s. 2 (b).]

(2)  Where a physician knows or suspects that an animal or another person is suffering from or has died from a communicable disease, he shall, without delay and in accordance with section 4, make a report to the medical health officer if the disease

(a) is listed in Schedule A, or

(b) becomes epidemic or shows unusual features.

(3)  Where a person in charge of a laboratory knows or suspects, as a result of analysis, examination or tests of or on a specimen, that an animal or another person is suffering from or has died from a communicable disease listed in Schedule B, he shall, within 7 days and in accordance with section 4, make a report to the medical health officer.

(4)  The medical health officer shall forward a report received under this section, within 7 days of receiving it, to the Provincial health officer, together with any further information requested by the Provincial health officer.

(5)  A report required to be made without delay shall be made by telephone or by any similar rapid means of communication.

[am. B.C. Reg. 49/2009, s. 2 (b).]

Reports by hospital

3 In addition to the requirements of section 2, the administrator or other person in charge of a hospital shall, within 7 days, make a report to the medical health officer respecting a patient admitted to the hospital who is suffering from a reportable communicable disease or from rheumatic fever.

Contents of report

4 (1)  A report made under section 2 (2) shall include

(a) the name of the disease,

(b) the name, age, sex and address of the infected person, and

(c) appropriate details if the disease reported is epidemic or shows unusual features.

(2)  A report made under section 2 (3) shall include

(a) the name of the disease,

(b) the name and address of the person from whom the specimen was taken, and

(c) the name and address of the physician or other person who is or has been attending the person referred to in paragraph (b).

(3)  A report made under section 3 shall include

(a) the name of the disease,

(b) the name, age, sex and address of the patient, and

(c) the name and address of the physician or other person who is or has been attending the patient.

(4)  All reports referred to in this section shall include any further relevant information requested by the medical health officer.

(5)  A report made under section 2 (2) or (3) or 3 respecting a person who voluntarily submitted to testing for Human Immunodeficiency Virus must omit the name and address of the person if that person so chooses.

[am. B.C. Reg. 62/2003, s. (b).]

Report of action taken

5 Where a physician, who knows or suspects that a person is infected with a reportable communicable disease, orders isolation or quarantine under this regulation, he shall immediately notify the medical health officer of the action taken.

Verification of reports

6 The medical health officer shall verify all reports that a person is infected with a reportable communicable disease before ordering or continuing isolation, quarantine or any other control measures respecting that person.

Voluntary testing

6.1 Where a person voluntarily submits himself to testing or examination for a communicable disease and, as a result of that voluntary test, another person is required to make a report to the medical health officer under section 2 or 3, no person shall disclose or permit to be disclosed to any person other than the medical health officer information contained in the report or the results of an examination or test, without the written consent of the person who so volunteered.

[en. B.C. Reg. 8/86.]

Index patient

6.2 (1)  In this section:

"index patient" means a person known or suspected to be suffering from, or who has died from, a communicable disease;

"relevant information" includes any information that may, directly or indirectly, identify the index patient.

(2)  Despite sections 4 (5) and 6.1,

(a) a physician who reasonably believes that another person may be at risk of harm from an index patient may provide any relevant information to the medical health officer, and

(b) on receiving information from a physician under paragraph (a), the medical health officer may

(i)  request further relevant information from the physician,

(ii)  require the index patient to undergo further examination and to provide further relevant information, and

(iii)  disclose to any person who may be at risk of harm any relevant information the medical health officer feels necessary to address the harm or to prevent further harm.

[en. B.C. Reg. 62/2003, s. (c).]

West Nile Virus testing disclosure

6.3 (1)  The Provincial Health Officer may direct the British Columbia Centre for Disease Control to disclose relevant personal information identifying the source of blood samples being tested for West Nile Virus at its laboratory to the Canadian Blood Services agency.

(2)  The Provincial Health Officer must authorize the disclosure of information in subsection (1) for use only by the Canadian Blood Services agency

(a) to determine whether it had received a donation of blood from those persons and to suspend distribution of that donated blood pending the results of laboratory analysis, and

(b) to determine whether it had provided those persons with donated blood.

(3)  This section is repealed May 21, 2010.

[en. B.C. Reg. 176/2009.]

Isolation of infected person

7 The medical health officer or a physician may order a person, whom he knows or suspects to be suffering from a reportable communicable disease, to be placed in strict or modified isolation.

Quarantine of susceptible person

8 The medical health officer or a physician may order a susceptible person, who is a contact of a person suffering from a reportable communicable disease, to be placed in quarantine.

Release by medical health officer

9 The medical health officer may release a person placed in isolation or quarantine by a physician if, in his opinion, the signs or symptoms of the illness are not consistent with a diagnosis of the reportable communicable disease.

Posting of notice

10 (1)  The medical health officer may sign and post the notice, set out in Schedule C, in a conspicuous place at the entrance to any premises where a person under quarantine is living.

(2)  and (3) Repealed. [B.C. Reg. 49/2009, s. 2 (b).]

(4)  In the event that the posted notice is removed, concealed or mutilated, the occupant of the premises on which the notice was posted shall, without delay, notify the medical health officer.

[am. B.C. Reg. 49/2009, s. 2 (b).]

Removal of articles from quarantine

11 No person shall, without the written consent of the medical health officer, remove or permit to be removed

(a) any article from premises where a person under isolation or quarantine is living, or

(b) any milk or milk products from a farm or dairy where a person, suffering from or a carrier of salmonellosis or campylobacteriosis, or other reportable communicable disease which may be spread by raw milk, is living, unless the milk or milk products are to be pasteurized before distribution or use.

Repealed

12 Repealed. [B.C. Reg. 49/2009, s. 2 (b).]

Repealed

13 Repealed. [B.C. Reg. 51/2008.]

Repealed

14-15 Repealed. [B.C. Reg. 49/2009, s. 2 (b).]

Valid transit certificate

16 (1)  No person shall ship a dead body by rail, air, ship or truck without a valid transit certificate.

(2)  A properly completed burial permit, issued under the Vital Statistics Act, attached to the head of the box containing the casket constitutes a valid transit certificate.

Treatment of baby's eyes at birth

17 (1)  A physician, or other qualified person, assisting at the birth of a baby must within one hour of the birth treat the eyes of the baby with a prophylactic solution of 1% tetracycline, 0.5% erythromycin, or 1% silver nitrate dispensed in single use containers.

(2)  Subsection (1) does not apply if both parents or, if the father is not available, the mother give a written statement directing that subsection (1) not be followed in the case of their baby.

(3)  Before accepting a written statement under subsection (2), the physician or other qualified person assisting at the birth must inform the parents, or mother, as the case may be,

(a) why the treatment is recommended,

(b) what advantages should be anticipated from the treatment,

(c) what problems may arise if the treatment is not given, and

(d) what side effects may arise from the treatment.

[en. B.C. Reg. 254/95.]

Order of closure of public place

18 A medical health officer may order a publicly or privately operated school, public swimming pool, bathing beach, theatre, recreation hall or any other public gathering place to be closed for the purpose of controlling the spread of a communicable disease.

Contaminated pet food

19 No person shall offer for sale or sell as pet food meat containing micro-organisms capable of producing disease in humans.

Repealed

20 Repealed. [B.C. Reg. 49/2009, s. 2 (b).]