Health law Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Health law - Essay Example These acts highlighted the need to protect citizens from domestic bioterrorism. The bioterrorist threat urged the public agencies and officials at all levels of government to give some coordinated response. In this paper we analyze North Carolina communicable disease control laws highlighted in the article of Moore Responding to Biological Threats: The Public Health Systems Communicable Disease Control Authority. In North Carolina communicable disease control laws give state and local public health officials numerous powers and duties to control the spread of communicable diseases. Public health officials receive reports of communicable diseases and conditions from physicians and other parties, investigate individual cases of communicable diseases and disease outbreaks, conduct disease surveillance activities, provide certain clinical and laboratory services, educate the public about communicable diseases and conditions, and attempt to ensure that individuals comply with communicable disease control measures. (Moore, 2001) Commission for Health Services promulgates communicable disease control rules ad grants the authority to the state health director to examine patient records pertaining to communicable diseases and to order isolation or quarantine in appropriate circumstances. Local health directors are also empowered to ‘limit the freedom of movement’ of the person. (Moore, 2001) The reporting by public health providers is the disclosure of health information that is ordinarily considered confidential. The disclosures are required by law to avert serious threats to health or safety. The disclosure of communicable disease information is regulated by two laws: the federal medical privacy rule (also known as the HIPAA privacy rule), and a state statute that addresses the confidentiality of communicable disease information.(Moore, 2001) These are the main issues we want to discuss in our paper. These regulations are