When
a person seeks treatment from a physician, he/she may submit specimens to a clinical laboratory.
Once a diagnosis or suspected diagnosis is reached, a
physician, health care facility administrator, or authorized
representative is required to report to the local health department any
reportable
disease or condition within 5 working days. A communicable
disease report form (CDR form) is provided by the Department. Also, an outbreak of a reportable disease identified by a school, child care center, or
health care facility is to be reported to the local health agency. A clinical
laboratory director or authorized representative must
report positive
laboratory findings for specified communicable disease pathogens to the
Arizona Department of Health Services (the Department) weekly. The Department
in turn shares reports of positive laboratory findings with the
respective local health
agency. The local
health agency verifies the diagnosis, institutes control measures, and
investigates selected diseases. A completed report of the case is sent to the the Department.
Within the Department, case reports are entered into disease registries. Each
week, data are electronically transmitted to
the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) without
identifiers. In turn, CDC publishes a national aggregate of cases
in the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly
Report. The
Department produces aggregate data reports that are distributed to
physicians, hospitals, local health departments, and the public in the
Prevention
Bulletin.
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