Section 4Sec./Art. 4

Objectives. -This Act shall have the following objectives:

(a) To continuously develop and upgrade the list of nationally notifiable diseases and health events of public health concern with their corresponding case definitions and laboratory confirmation;

(b) To ensure the establishment and maintenance of relevant, efficient and effective disease surveillance and response system at the national and local levels;

(c) To expand collaborations beyond traditional public health partners to include others who may be involved in the disease surveillance and response, such as agricultural agencies, veterinarians, environmental agencies, law enforcement entities, and transportation and communication agencies, among others;

(d) To provide accurate and timely health information about notifiable diseases, and health-related events and conditions to citizens and health providers as an integral part of response to public health emergencies;

(e) To establish effective mechanisms for strong collaboration with national and local government health agencies to ensure proper procedures are in place to promptly respond to reports of notifiable diseases and health events of public health concern, including case investigations, treatment, and control and containment, including follow-up activities;

(f) To ensure that public health authorities have the statutory and regulatory authority to ensure the following:

(1) Mandatory reporting of reportable diseases and health events of public health concern;

(2) Epidemic/outbreaks and/or epidemiologic investigation, case investigations, patient interviews, review of medical records, contact tracing, specimen collection and testing, risk assessments, laboratory investigation, population surveys, and environmental investigation;

(3) Quarantine and isolation; and

(4) Rapid containment and implementation of measures for disease prevention and control;

(g) To provide sufficient funding to support operations needed to establish and maintain epidemiology and surveillance units at the DOH, health facilities and local government units (LGUs); efficiently and effectively investigate outbreaks and health events of public health concern; validate, collect, analyze and disseminate disease surveillance information to relevant agencies or organizations; and implement appropriate response;

(h) To require public and private physicians, allied medical personnel, professional societies, hospitals, clinics, health facilities, laboratories, pharmaceutical companies, private companies and institutions, workplaces, schools, prisons, ports, airports, establishments, communities, other government agencies, and nongovernment organizations (NGOs) to actively participate in disease surveillance and response; and

(i) To respect to the fullest extent possible, the rights of people to liberty, bodily integrity, and privacy while maintaining and preserving public health and security.