Illinois Administrative Code › Title 77 - PUBLIC HEALTH › Part 690 - CONTROL OF NOTIFIABLE DISEASES AND CONDITIONS CODE › Subpart A - GENERAL PROVISIONS › Section 690.30 - General Procedures for the Control of Notifiable Diseases and Conditions, Including Outbreaks

Current through Register Vol. 48, No. 28, July 12, 2024
This Section establishes routine measures for the control of
				  notifiable diseases, conditions and outbreaks by the Department or local health
				  authorities and health care providers, and establishes progressive initiatives
				  to ensure that appropriate measures are implemented to control the spread and
				  occurrence of notifiable diseases, conditions and outbreaks. This Section does
				  not apply to infectious or non-infectious diseases and conditions for which
				  reporting requirements are specified elsewhere in the Illinois Administrative
				  Code, such as sexually transmissible infections, which are regulated under the
				  Control of Sexually Transmissible Infections Code, the HIV/AIDS Confidentiality
				  and Testing Code, and the Perinatal HIV Prevention Code.
a) Investigation
1)
The Department of Public Health
				shall investigate the causes of
contagious, or
dangerously
contagious, or
infectious diseases,
				especially when existing in epidemic form, and take means to restrict and
				suppress the same, and whenever such disease becomes, or threatens to become,
				epidemic in any locality and the local board of health or local authorities
				neglect or refuse to enforce efficient measures for its restriction or
				suppression or to act with sufficient promptness or efficiency, or whenever the
				local board of health or local authorities neglect or refuse to promptly
				enforce efficient measures for the restriction or suppression of dangerously
				contagious or infectious diseases, the Department of Public Health may enforce
				such measures as it deems necessary to protect the public health, and all
				necessary expenses so incurred shall be paid by the locality for which services
				are rendered.
(Section 2(a) of the Act)
2) The Department shall
make
				investigations and inquiries with respect to the causes of disease
,
				health conditions,
and death; investigate the effect of environment,
				including conditions of employment and other conditions that may affect health;
				and to make other investigations that it may deem necessary for the
				preservation and improvement of health.
(Section 510 of the Public
				Health Powers and Duties Law)
3)
				Each case or cluster of a notifiable disease or condition shall be investigated
				to determine the source, where feasible. Findings of the investigation shall be
				reported as specified under the Section of this Part applicable to each
				specific disease.
4) The Department
				or local health authority may investigate the occurrence of cases, suspect
				cases, or carriers of diseases or conditions or unusual disease or condition
				occurrences in a public or private place for the purposes of verifying the
				existence of a disease or condition; ascertaining the source of the disease or
				condition-causing agent; identifying unreported cases; locating and evaluating
				contacts of cases and suspect cases; identifying those at risk of disease or
				the condition; determining necessary control measures, including isolation and
				quarantine; and informing the public if necessary.
5) When the Director determines that a
				certain disease or condition warrants investigation, the Director may declare
				the disease or condition to be the subject of a medical investigation and
				require hospitals, physicians, health care facilities, etc., to submit
				information, data and reports, and allow review and examination of medical
				records as necessary for the purpose of the investigation. No practitioner or
				person shall be liable in any action at law for permitting examination and
				review. The data obtained shall be held confidential in accordance with the
				Communicable Disease Report Act.
6)
				When two or more cases of a suspected or notifiable disease or condition,
				including, but not limited to confirmed health care associated infection or
				colonization, or single case with public health significance occur in any
				business, organization, institution, health care facility, school, child care
				center or provider, residential facility, or private home, the business owner,
				the person in charge of the establishment or the event, or the homeowner shall
				cooperate with public health authorities in the investigation of cases, suspect
				cases, outbreaks and suspect outbreaks. This includes, but is not limited to,
				release of utilization information about a product used to mitigate spread,
				including therapeutics; shopper card records; credit card receipts; food
				preparation methods; menus; environmental specimens; food specimens; clinical
				specimens, invoices, employee work schedules and work logs, including logs of
				employee illness or absences; lists of customers, attendees, residents or
				patients; travel/transportation logs; utilization information about a product
				used to mitigate spread, including therapeutics, vaccinations or prophylactics;
				and the name and other pertinent information about employees, guests, members
				or residents diagnosed with a communicable disease or condition, including
				infection or colonization as the information relates to the investigation. When
				outbreaks of infectious disease occur in any business, organization,
				institution, health care facility or private home, employees of the location
				under investigation may be considered to be contacts to cases and be required
				to submit release specimens by the local health authority.
7) When two or more cases of a notifiable
				communicable disease or condition occur in association with a common source,
				the investigation should include a search for additional cases.
8) All reports of an outbreak shall be
				entered in the Department's ORS by the local health jurisdiction within 24
				hours of receipt of the report. Within 30 days of the end of the outbreak
				investigation, the final information shall be entered in the Department's ORS.
				Supplemental questionnaires may be used during the outbreak investigation,
				including, but not limited to use of REDCap or other online systems.
9) Under circumstances with highly infectious
				diseases or other disease or conditions causing extreme harm, including, but
				not limited to, high risk or high occurrence of death or complication, and when
				normal attempts to make contact have failed, the Department, local health
				authority, or law enforcement may obtain and review any cell phone, computer,
				mobile device or other communication device, from a case for the purpose of the
				investigation, including, but not limited to, the identification of possible
				contacts or possible exposures, for the purpose of preventing or controlling
				disease or the condition.
10) State
				and local law enforcement authority shall share information with the Department
				or local health department as requested by either the Department or the local
				health authority for the treatment, response to, control of, investigation of,
				or prevention of a notifiable disease, condition or outbreak.
11) The Department or local health authority
				may conduct sentinel surveillance for an infectious disease, condition or
				syndrome if the Department or local health authority determines that sentinel
				surveillance will provide adequate data for the purpose of preventing or
				controlling disease or the condition or achieving other significant public
				health purposes in a defined geographic area or the entire State. The
				Department or local health authority shall select, after consultation with the
				sites, sentinel surveillance sites that have epidemiological significance for
				the disease, condition or syndrome under investigation. A disease, condition or
				syndrome may be removed from sentinel surveillance if the Department or local
				health authority determines that the surveillance is no longer necessary. The
				Department or local health authority shall provide a description, in writing,
				to sentinel surveillance sites of a specific, planned mechanism for
				surveillance of the disease, condition or syndrome and, as necessary,
				submission of clinical materials from cases and suspect cases.
12) An individual or entity, including a
				health information exchange, may carry out activities such as sentinel
				surveillance under a grant, contract or cooperative agreement with the
				Department. The authorized individual or entity functions as a public health
				authority for the purposes of the activity.
13) Investigations conducted by the
				Department or local health authority may include, but are not limited to:
A) Review of pertinent, relevant medical
				records by authorized personnel, if necessary to confirm the diagnosis;
				investigation of causes; identification of other cases related to the outbreak
				or the reported disease (including colonization) or condition in a region,
				community, or workplace; to conduct epidemiologic studies; to determine whether
				a patient with a notifiable disease or condition has received adequate
				treatment to render the patient non-infectious, whether a person exposed to a
				case has received vaccination or prophylaxis, if appropriate, or infection or
				environmental control measures have been implemented, if appropriate. Review of
				records may occur without patient consent and shall be conducted at times and
				with such notice as is possible under the circumstances;
B) Performing interviews with the case, or
				persons knowledgeable about the case, and collecting pertinent and relevant
				information about the causes of or risk factors for the notifiable disease or
				condition;
C) Medical examination
				and testing of persons, with their explicit consent;
D) Obtaining, from public or private
				businesses or institutions, the identities of and location and contact
				information about persons, travelers, passengers or transportation crews with a
				similar or common potential exposure to the infectious agent as a reported
				case; exposure may be current or have occurred in the past;
E) Interviewing or administering
				questionnaire surveys confidentially to any resident of any community, or any
				agent, owner, operator, employer, employee, or client of a public or private
				business or institution, who is epidemiologically associated either with the
				outbreak or with the reported disease or condition case or has had a similar
				exposure as a reported case;
F)
				Collecting environmental samples of substances or measurements of physical
				agents that may be related to the cause of an outbreak or notifiable disease or
				condition;
G) Taking photographs
				related to the purpose of the investigation. If the photographs are taken in a
				business, the employer shall have the opportunity to review the photographs
				taken or obtained for the purpose of identifying those that contain or might
				reveal a trade secret; and
H)
				Entering a place of employment for the purpose of conducting investigations of
				those processes, conditions, structures, machines, apparatus, devices,
				equipment, records, and materials within the place of employment that are
				relevant, pertinent, and necessary to the investigation of the outbreak or
				notifiable dangerously contagious or infectious disease. Investigations shall
				be conducted during regular business hours, if possible, and with as much
				notice as possible under the circumstances.