California Code of Regulations › Title 17 - Public Health › Division 1 - State Department of Health Services › Chapter 4 - Preventive Medical Service › Subchapter 1 - Reportable Diseases and Conditions › Article 3 - Specific Diseases and Conditions › Section 2636 - Venereal Diseases

Current through Register 2024 Notice Reg. No. 28, July 12, 2024
(a) Sections
					 2636 to
					 2636(m) inclusive
					 pertain to the venereal diseases and, unless otherwise specified, shall include
					 syphilis, gonococcus infection, granuloma inguinale, lymphogranuloma venereum, and
					 chancroid. (See Chapter 765, Statutes 1947; also Section
					 21100,
					 Health and Safety Code.)
(b) Reports
					 Confidential. Reports of examinations, cases, investigations and all records thereof
					 made under the regulations for the control of venereal diseases shall be
					 confidential and not open to public inspection and no part thereof divulged, except
					 as may be necessary for the preservation of the public health.
(c) Report of Unusual Prevalence. When the local
					 health officer, through investigation, becomes aware of unusual prevalence of
					 venereal diseases, or of unusual local conditions favoring the spread of these
					 diseases, he shall report the fact at once to the State Department of Health
					 Services.
(d) Parents or Guardians
					 Responsible for Compliance of Minors. The parents or guardians of minors suffering
					 from a venereal disease shall be legally responsible for the compliance of such
					 minors with the requirements of the regulations relating to the venereal
					 diseases.
(e) Certification. Each local
					 health officer shall take every proper means of repressing prostitution, inasmuch as
					 it is the most prolific source of the venereal diseases. Health officers and
					 physicians shall not issue certificates of freedom from venereal diseases to known
					 prostitutes, as such certificates may be used for purposes of
					 solicitation.
(f) Diagnosis. The local
					 health officer may require the submission of such specimens as may be designated
					 from cases of venereal disease for examination in a laboratory approved by the State
					 Department of Health Services. The local health officer may require any physician in
					 attendance on a person infected with a venereal disease or suspected of being
					 infected with a venereal disease to submit such specimens as approved by the State
					 Department of Health Services provided, however, nothing shall prevent the physician
					 or individual from having additional examination made elsewhere.
(g) Instruction to the Patient. It shall be the
					 duty of the physician in attendance on a person having a venereal disease, or
					 suspected of having a venereal disease, to instruct such patient in precautionary
					 measures for preventing the spread of the disease, the seriousness of the disease,
					 and the necessity for treatment and prolonged medical supervision, and the physician
					 shall, in addition, furnish approved literature on these subjects. Approved
					 literature for distribution to patients may be secured from the State Department of
					 Public Health and the local health departments free of charge.
(h) Investigation. All city, county and other
					 local health officers are hereby directed to use every available means to ascertain
					 the existence of, and immediately to investigate, all reported or suspected cases of
					 venereal disease in the infectious stages within their several territorial
					 jurisdictions, and to ascertain the sources of such infections. The attending
					 physician, in every case of venereal disease coming to him for treatment, shall
					 endeavor to discover the source of infection, as well as any sexual or other
					 intimate contacts which the patient was in the communicable stage of the disease.
					 The physician shall make an effort, through the cooperation of the patient, to bring
					 these cases in for examination and, if necessary , treatment. If, within 10 days of
					 identification, any such source of infection or any such contact has not given
					 satisfactory evidence of being under the care of a physician, such person shall be
					 reported to the health officer, the physician's name being kept confidential in any
					 investigation by the health department. In cases in which prostitutes are named as
					 sources of infection, all obtainable information as to name, description, residence,
					 etc., shall be given to the health officer at once.
In carrying out such investigations, all health officers are
						hereby invested with full powers of inspection, examination and isolation of all
						persons known to be infected with a venereal disease in an infectious stage, or
						suspected of being infected with a venereal disease in an infectious stage and are
						hereby directed:
(1) To make such
					 examinations as are deemed necessary of persons reasonably suspected of having a
					 venereal disease in an infectious stage.
(2) When the individual to be examined is a woman,
					 to provide the services of a woman physician if such physician is available, when so
					 requested by the individual to be examined.
(3) To isolate such person, whenever deemed
					 necessary for the protection of the public health. In establishing isolation the
					 health officer shall proceed as provided in Sections
					 2636(i),
					 2636(j),
					 2636 (
l
) and
					 2636(m).
(4) Pursuant to Section
					 3194.5
					 of the Health and Safety Code, a person employed by a Public Health Department shall
					 meet the following training requirements as a prerequisite to the performance of
					 venipuncture or skin puncture:
(A) Possess a
					 statement signed by a licensed physician and surgeon stating that the individual
					 named in such statement has received adequate training in the proper procedure to be
					 employed in the performance of venipuncture and skin puncture.
(B) In order to receive such statement, the
					 venereal disease case investigator shall be trained by a licensed physician and
					 surgeon. The trainee shall observe and receive sufficient instruction and
					 demonstration of the proper technique and procedure to be employed in the
					 performance of venipunctures and skin punctures; in turn, the physician and surgeon
					 shall then observe the procedure and technique of the trainee.
(C) When such training has been completed by the
					 trainee to the satisfaction of the physician and surgeon, such physician and surgeon
					 shall execute a statement that the venereal disease case investigator has received
					 adequate training in the proper procedure to be employed in the performance of
					 venipuncture and skin puncture.
Satisfaction of these training requirements shall be in
						addition to other requirements of Section
						3194.5
						of the Health and Safety Code.