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Reporting of Notifiable Diseases and Conditions Regulations

made under Sections 74 and 106 of the

Health Protection Act

S.N.S. 2004, c. 4

O.I.C. 2005-457 (effective November 1, 2005), N.S. Reg. 195/2005

amended to O.I.C. 2023-146 (effective May 23, 2023), N.S. Reg. 90/2023



Table of Contents


Please note: this table of contents is provided for convenience of reference and does not form part of the regulations.
Click here to go to the text of the regulations.

 

Citation

Definitions

Prescribed circumstances under which report required

Report required only in circumstances that arise while functioning in professional capacity

Report to be in accordance with Guidelines

Report to be made to medical officer

System for reporting required at institution

Information required for reporting

Notice of report to Chief Medical Officer

Records required to be provided

Designations of diseases and conditions

 

Schedule A: List of Notifiable Diseases and Conditions

Part I—Communicable Diseases

Dangerous diseases specified in Act

Dangerous diseases designated by regulations

Other communicable diseases

Part II—Non-communicable Diseases and Conditions



 

Citation

1        These regulations may be cited as the Reporting of Notifiable Diseases and Conditions Regulations.


Definitions

2        (1)    In these regulations,

 

                   (a)      “Act” means the Health Protection Act;

 

                   (b)     “Guidelines” means the Nova Scotia Surveillance Guidelines for Notifiable Diseases and Conditions as approved by the Chief Medical Officer;

 

                   (c)      “report” means a report made under Section 31 of the Act.

 

          (2)    For the purposes of the Act,

 

                   (a)      “infectious” or “contagious”, in relation to a person, means that the person has a communicable disease;

 

                   (b)     “resident” means

 

                              (i)      a person who is placed in, remanded or admitted to an institution,

 

                              (ii)     a child who attends a facility, as defined in the Day Care Act, or

 

                              (iii)    a student who lives in a residence owned by an institution prescribed in subsection (3).

 

          (2A) For the purpose of further defining the definition of “dangerous disease” in clause 4(c) of the Act, the following words used in that definition are defined as follows:

 

                   (a)      “Ebola” means Ebola hemorrhagic fever; and

 

                   (b)     “Lassa fever” means Lassa hemorrhagic fever.

 

          (3)    For the purposes of subclause 4(i)(ix) of the Act, the following are prescribed as institutions:

 

                   (a)      Nova Scotia Community College;

 

                   (b)     an institution or university under the Maritime Provinces Higher Education Commission Act;

 

                   (c)      a private career college under the Private Career Colleges Regulation Act;

 

                   (d)     Université Sainte-Anne;

 

                   (e)      a recreational camp as defined in the Recreational Camps Regulations made under the Act.

 

          (4)    For the purpose of subsection 31(5) of the Act, “an illness is serious and is occurring at a higher rate than is normal” refers to any of the following:

 

                   (a)      a disease occurring more frequently than would normally be expected or in a rare or unusual form;

 

                   (b)     an unusual disease cluster;

 

                   (c)      a disease outbreak;

 

                   (d)     an unusual disease occurrence.


Prescribed circumstances under which report required

3        For the purpose of subsection 31(4) of the Act, the following circumstances are prescribed as circumstances under which a report is required:

 

                   (a)      when a person discovers a notifiable disease or condition as a result of a biopsy or autopsy;

 

                   (b)     when a blood test conducted by an employee of Canadian Blood Services reveals a notifiable disease or condition;

 

                   (c)      when a death certificate indicates that a deceased person had a notifiable disease or condition at the time of death, and in that circumstance the report must be made by the Deputy Registrar General appointed under the Vital Statistics Act.


Report required only in circumstances that arise while functioning in professional capacity

4        A person must make a report only if the circumstances that require the report arise while the person is functioning in their professional capacity.


Report to be in accordance with Guidelines

5        A report must be made in accordance with the Guidelines.


Report to be made to medical officer

6        (1)    A report must be made to the medical officer who has jurisdiction in the locality in which the reporting person works.

 

          (2)    If a person who is the subject of a report does not live in the locality in which the reporting person works, the medical officer who receives the report must forward it to the medical officer who has jurisdiction in the locality of the person who is the subject of the report.


System for reporting required at institution

7        An administrator of an institution must ensure that an appropriate system is in place to ensure that all reports are made in accordance with these regulations.


Information required for reporting

8        A report must include, to the extent possible,

 

                   (a)      the name, age, address, ethnicity and sex of the person who is the subject of the report;

 

                   (b)     the name of the notifiable disease or condition or the illness that is being reported;

 

                   (c)      all clinical and epidemiological details pertinent to the diagnosis and follow-up of the person who is the subject of the report; and

 

                   (d)     the name and profession of, and contact information for, the reporting person,

 

and any additional information required by the medical officer for case management and prevention of transmission of the notifiable disease or condition or the illness.


Notice of report to Chief Medical Officer

9        A medical officer must notify the Chief Medical Officer, in the form and at the intervals prescribed in the Guidelines, of all reports made to the medical officer.


Records required to be provided

10      (1)    Every principal of a public school and operator of a private school under the Education Act must provide to the medical officer who has jurisdiction in the school’s locality copies of school records, such as absentee reports and class lists, as required by the Guidelines or requested by the medical officer.

 

          (2)    Every director of a day care facility under the Day Care Act must provide to the medical officer who has jurisdiction in the facility’s locality copies of records, such as attendance records, daily logs, infant and toddler records, and menus, as required by the Guidelines or requested by the medical officer.


Designations of diseases and conditions

11      (1)    The diseases and conditions listed in Schedule A are designated as notifiable diseases and conditions for the purpose of clause 4(m) of the Act.

 

          (2)    The diseases listed under the heading “Dangerous diseases designated by regulations” in Part I of Schedule A are designated as dangerous diseases for the purpose of clause 4(c) of the Act.


 ________________________________________________________________

 

Schedule A: List of Notifiable Diseases and Conditions


Part I—Communicable Diseases


Dangerous diseases specified in Act

All diseases specified in clause 4(c) of the Act


Dangerous diseases designated by regulations

Crimean congo hemorrhagic fever

Influenza virus of pandemic potential

Marburg hemorrhagic fever

Rift Valley hemorrhagic fever

Viral hemorrhagic fevers- other


Other communicable diseases

Acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS)

Acute flaccid paralysis (AFP)

Anaplasmosis

Anthrax

Babesiosis

Botulism

Brucellosis

Campylobacteriosis

Chlamydia

Cholera

Clostridium difficile

Congenital rubella syndrome

Creutzfeld-Jakob disease - classic (CJD)

Creutzfeld-Jakob disease - new variant (vCJD)

Cryptosporidiosis

Cyclosporiasis

Diphtheria

Giardiasis

Gonorrhea

Group A streptococcal disease invasive

Group B streptococcal disease of the newborn

Haemophilus influenzae type b (HIB) invasive disease

Hantavirus pulmonary syndrome (HPS)

Hepatitis A

Hepatitis B

Hepatitis C

Human Immunodeficiany [Immunodeficiency] Virus (HIV)

Influenza laboratory confirmed

Legionellosis

Leprosy (Hansen’s disease)

Listeriosis

Lyme disease

Malaria

Measles

Meningitis (bacterial)

Meningococcal disease invasive

Methicillin resistant staphylococcus aureus (MRSA)

Mpox

Mumps

Paratyphoid

Pertussis

Pneumococcal disease invasive

Poliomyelitis

Powassan virus

Rabies

Rubella

Salmonellosis

SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19)

Shellfish poisoning (amnesic)

Shellfish poisoning (domoic)

Shellfish poisoning (paralytic)

Shigellosis

Syphilis

Tetanus

Tularemia

Typhoid

Vancomycin resistant enterococcus (VRE)

Verotoxigenic escherichia coli infection

West Nile virus (WNv)

Yellow fever


Part II—Non-communicable Diseases and Conditions


Adverse events following immunization (AEFI)


 

 


 

Legislative History
Reference Tables

Reporting of Notifiable Diseases Regulations

N.S. Reg. 195/2005

Health Protection Act

Note:  The information in these tables does not form part of the regulations and is compiled by the Office of the Registrar of Regulations for reference only.

Source Law

The current consolidation of the Reporting of Notifiable Diseases and Conditions Regulations made under the Health Protection Act includes all of the following regulations:

N.S.
Regulation

In force
date*

How in force

Royal Gazette
Part II Issue

195/2005

Nov 1, 2005

date specified

Oct 28, 2005

255/2011

Aug 16, 2011

date specified

Aug 26, 2011

62/2012

Apr 1, 2016

date specified

Mar 23, 2012

13/2016

Mar 19, 2016

date specified

Feb 5, 2016

146/2021

Nov 9, 2021

date specified

Dec 3, 2021

90/2023

May 23, 2023

date specified

Jun 2, 2023

The following regulations are not yet in force and are not included in the current consolidation:

N.S.
Regulation

In force
date*

How in force

Royal Gazette
Part II Issue

 

 

 

 

*See subsection 3(6) of the Regulations Act for rules about in force dates of regulations.

Amendments by Provision

ad. = added
am. = amended

fc. = fee change
ra. = reassigned

rep. = repealed
rs. = repealed and substituted

Provision affected

How affected

2(2A)................................................

ad. 62/2012

2(3)(e)...............................................

ad. 255/2011

2(4)...................................................

rs. 13/2016

Schedule A

Part I—Communicable Diseases, Dangerous diseases designated by regulation.......................................

am. 62/2012

Part I—Communicable Diseases, Other communicable
diseases...........................................

am. 62/2012, 13/2016, 146/2021, 90/2023

Part II—Non-communicable diseases and conditions................................

am. 62/2012

Note that changes to headings are not included in the above table.

Editorial Notes and Corrections

 

Note

Effective
date

1

The reference in clause 2(3)(c) to the Private Career Colleges Regulation Act should be read as a reference to the Private Career Colleges Act in accordance with amendment to the title of the Act made by S.N.S. 2015, c. 25, s. 2.

May 11, 2015

2

The reference to the Day Care Act in the definition of “resident” in s. 2(2)(b) and in s. 10(2) should be read as a reference to the Early Learning and Child Care Act in accordance with an amendment to the title of the Act made by S.N.S. 2018, c. 33, s. 2, as proclaimed in force by N.S. Reg. 163/2020.

Oct 27, 2020

 

 

 

Repealed and Superseded

N.S.
Regulation

Title

In force
date

Repealed
date

 

 

 

 

Note:  Only regulations that are specifically repealed and replaced appear in this table.  It may not reflect the entire history of regulations on this subject matter.