North Carolina Communicable Disease Law

Book excerpt: Preventing and controlling the spread of communicable disease is one of the core activities of public health systems. Law provides part of the infrastructure that allows public health systems to detect and respond to communicable diseases and conditions. This book provides an introduction to the law of communicable disease control in North Carolina. Part One addresses core topics in the legal structure for communicable disease control: detecting communicable disease in the population through surveillance and disease reporting laws, -investigating communicable disease cases and outbreaks, -controlling communicable disease, -enforcing communicable disease laws using public health legal remedies, and -the interaction of confidentiality laws with public health agencies' communicable disease control activities. Part Two takes a more in-depth look at three special topics: -isolation and quarantine, -bloodborne pathogen exposures, and -public health and bioterrorism. The book is supplemented by materials on the author's North Carolina public health law website, ncphlaw.unc.edu. The link to "Legal Information by Topic" leads to the topic, "Communicable Disease Control," which contains links to blog posts, bulletins, and frequently asked questions about some of the book's topics. A free PDF download of the table of contents is available (https://www.sog.unc.edu/publications/books/north-carolina-communicable-disease-law!/details).