Section 6Sec./Art. 6

Mandatory Reporting of Notifiable Diseases and Health Events of Public Concern. -The DOH, through the Epidemiology Bureau, shall issue the official list of institutionalized public health information system, disease surveillance and response systems for mandatory reporting of notifiable diseases and health events of public concern provided in Section 5 of this Act.. This official list shall include the Field Health Service Information System (FHSIS), the Philippine Integrated Disease Surveillance Response (PIDSR) System with its Case-based Surveillance and Event-based Surveillance, and other duly institutionalized public health disease surveillance and response systems of the DOH.

Under this Act:

(a) The DOH and its local counterparts are mandated to implement the mandatory reporting of notifiable diseases and health events of public health concern;

(b) The DOH and its local counterparts shall establish and maintain functional disease surveillance and response systems, which include coordination mechanisms, implementation protocols for reporting and response, measures for data security and confidentiality, and procedures and provision to ensure safety of personnel conducting disease surveillance and response activities;

(c) All public and private physicians, allied medical personnel, professional societies, hospitals, clinics, health facilities, laboratories, institutions, workplaces, schools, prisons, ports, airports, establishments, communities, other government agencies, and NGOs are required to accurately and immediately report notifiable diseases and health events of public health concern as issued by the DOH;

(d) Data collection, analysis, and the dissemination of information from official disease surveillance and response systems can only be done by authorized personnel from the DOH and its local counterparts and may only be used for public health concern purposes only; thus, should be exempted in the provision of Data Privacy Act on accessibility of data;

(e) To perform their disease surveillance and response functions, authorized health personnel from the DOH and its local counterparts have the statutory and regulatory authority to enforce the following:

(1) Establishment of public health information system disease surveillance and response systems in private and public facilities deemed necessary to protect the health of the population in coordination with the DOH-Epidemiology Bureau;

(2) Mandatory reporting of notifiable diseases and health events of public health concern;

(3) Conduct of epidemic/outbreak and epidemiologic investigations, case investigations, patient interviews, review of medical records, contact tracing, collection, storage, transport and testing of samples and specimen, risk assessments, laboratory investigation, population surveys, and environmental investigation;

(4) Rapid containment, quarantine and isolation, disease prevention and control measures, and product recall;

(5) Response activities for events of public health concern;

(f) The DOH and its local counterparts shall ensure that all surveillance and response officers have adequate capacity for mandatory reporting of notifiable diseases, risk assessment, epidemiology, disease surveillance, and response to epidemics and health events of public health concern. It shall also ensure that the safety and protection of all personnel directly involved in surveillance and response activities are upheld; and

(g) All personnel of the DOH and its local counterparts, and all other individuals or entities involved in conducting disease surveillance and response activities shall respect, to the fullest extent possible, the rights of people to liberty, bodily integrity, and privacy while maintaining and preserving public health and security.