[HISTORY: Adopted by the Board of Health of the Borough of Totowa 7-21-1959 (Ch. 153 of the 1974 Code).[1] Amendments noted where applicable.]
GENERAL REFERENCES
Burials and interments — See Ch. 433.
[1]
Editor's Note: This ordinance contains provisions which are substantially similar to those contained in Chapter II, Reportable Diseases, of the State Sanitary Code.
A. 
A "communicable disease" is hereby defined as a disease in which the causative agent may be transmitted from person to person or from animal to person by direct or indirect means.
B. 
The following diseases are hereby specifically declared to be communicable:
Anthrax
*Chancroid
Chicken pox
Cholera, Asiatic
Diphtheria (membranous croup)
Dysentery, amoebic and bacillary
Encephalitis, lethargic
Encephalomylitis (equine)
Filariasis
Glanders
*Gonorrhea
*Granuloma inguinale
Influenza
Leprosy
*Lymphogranuloma venereum
Malaria
Measles (rubeola)
Measles, German (rubella)
Meningitis, epidemic cerebrospinal
Mumps
Ophthalmia neonatorum
Paratyphoid fever
Plague
Pneumonia (broncho, lobar)
Poliomyelitis, acute anterior (infantile paralysis)
Psittacosis
Rabies (hydrophobia) in animals and man
Rocky Mountain spotted fever
Scarlet fever
Smallpox (varioloid)
Streptococcic sore throat
*Syphilis
Tetanus
Trachoma
Trichinosis
Tuberculosis, all forms
Tularemia
Typhoid fever
Typhus fever (Brill's disease)
Udulant fever (brucellosis)
Vincent's angina (Stomatitis) (trench mouth)
Whooping cough
Yellow fever
NOTE:
*
Shall be reported directly to the State Department of Health and Senior Services and to the local Board of Health.
All reports of cases or suspected cases of communicable disease shall be made in writing to the Health Officer, signed by the physician or other person making the same and shall set forth the nature of the disease or supposed disease, the name, age, sex, color and precise location of the person infected.
A. 
Every physician who shall attend any person who is infected with any of the diseases enumerated in § 438-1B shall report such sickness within 12 hours after his first professional attendance.
B. 
When no physician is attending any person who appears to be infected with any communicable disease, then it shall be the duty of any person who is in attendance or who had knowledge thereof to report at once the existence of such suspected disease.
C. 
Every superintendent or other person having control or supervision over any hospital, sanatorium or other public or private institution situated within the Borough of Totowa in which any person suffering from any of the communicable diseases enumerated in § 438-1B is received for care or treatment shall, within 24 hours after any such case has been received into said institution, report such sickness.
D. 
It shall be the duty of any teacher, nurse or medical school inspector to report forthwith to the principal or other person in charge of a school the name of any child in such school who appears to be infected with a disease declared by this chapter to be communicable. It shall be the duty of the principal or person in charge of any school to report forthwith in writing or by telephone, or in person if practicable, to the Health Officer.
E. 
It shall be the duty of the principal or other person in immediate charge of any public, private or Sunday school to exclude therefrom any child or other person infected with a disease suspected to be communicable, until such child or other person shall have presented a certificate issued by the Health Officer.
Whenever a report of a communicable disease is received, the person infected shall, at the discretion of this Board, be isolated or quarantined as this Board may order or direct.
A. 
In establishing isolation or quarantine, the local Board or Health Officer shall define the place and the limits of the area within which the infected person is to be isolated. No person except the attending physician or nurse shall enter or leave the areas of isolation without the permission of the Health Officer. Isolation or quarantine shall be continued until it is determined by examination that the person no longer has the disease in an infectious stage.
B. 
After isolation or quarantine of any person infected with or exposed to a communicable disease shall have been established, such person shall not leave the apartment or premises where he is isolated or quarantined, nor shall any other person remove such person, nor permit him to be removed, unless a permit for such removal shall have been issued first by the Health Officer.
When the diagnosis of any communicable disease is established, this Board shall have the right to post in plain view, at the entrance of the house or upon the doors of the apartment in which the case is isolated, a placard stating the existence therein of a communicable disease and the name of such disease.
A. 
No person shall interfere with nor obstruct the posting of any placard by any representative of this Board in or on any place or premises, nor shall any person conceal or mutilate any such placard or remove it except by permission of the Health Officer.
B. 
It shall be the duty of the occupant of the premises where a placard has been posted to notify immediately the Health Officer of any interference with or removal of such placard.
The physician, nurse or other necessary attendant upon a case of communicable disease, after attending upon the case, shall take such precautions and practice such measures of cleansing or disinfection of his person and garments as will prevent the conveyance to others of infective material from the patient.
A. 
No person shall expose or permit the exposure of anyone to any communicable disease or its causative agent.
B. 
No person suffering from a communicable disease or harboring the causative organism of any communicable disease and no articles which may tend to propagate or spread such disease shall be brought into this Borough without the permission from the Health Officer. Whenever it shall come to the knowledge of any person that such persons or articles have been brought into this Borough without the permission of the Health Officer, he shall immediately give notice thereof to the Health Officer. No person shall remove any such diseased person or infected article from any house or place without a permit from the Health Officer.
No person infected with chicken pox, diptheria, epidemic cerebrospinal meningitis, German measles, measles, mumps, acute anterior poliomyelitis (infantile paralysis), scarlet fever, streptococcic sore throat, whooping cough, smallpox, Vincent's angina or gonorrhea and syphilis in an infectious stage shall attend or be permitted to attend any public, private or Sunday school, or any public or private gathering; nor shall such person visit or make use of any public library or any of the books belonging thereto; nor shall the personal clothing or bedclothing of any person infected with such disease be sent to a public laundry unless it shall first have been disinfected in such manner as prescribed by this Board.
This Board may, if it shall be deemed necessary, require a person believed to be a carrier of disease germs to furnish specimens for examination. It shall be the duty of such person to furnish the necessary specimens for examination or to permit the Health Officer or his representative to collect such specimens.
Whenever this Board shall deem it necessary to establish the true character of any disease which in its opinion may be communicable, a medical examination of the person infected may be required and such specimens of secretions or other material for examination shall be taken from such person, and it shall be the duty of such person to submit to such examination and furnish such necessary specimens. No person shall interfere with or prevent the securing of such specimens. The Board may cause any person suspected to be infected with a communicable disease to be isolated or quarantined until medical or laboratory examinations show that the person is free of the causative organisms of disease.
A. 
Adequate cleansing or disinfection, or both, of rooms, furniture and belongings, when deemed necessary by this Board or required by this chapter, shall immediately follow the recovery, death or removal of a person infected with a communicable disease. Such cleansing shall be performed by and at the expense of the occupant or owner of said premises, upon the order and under the direction of this Board, in accordance with the provisions of this chapter.
B. 
When an order requiring the cleansing or disinfection of articles or premises is not complied with, this Board shall cause to be posted a placard on the premises forbidding the occupancy of such rooms or premises until such order shall have been complied with. No person shall remove, mutilate, conceal or destroy any such placard except by the direction of this Board.
C. 
Furniture, bedding, clothing, carpets, rugs or other articles which may have been contaminated with infective material, and in such condition that they cannot, in the opinion of the Health Officer, be properly cleansed or disinfected, shall upon his order be destroyed in the manner designated by him.
Every physician attending any person whose illness is caused or suspected of being caused by food poisoning (bacterial or chemical) shall, within 12 hours after his first attendance, make a written report to this Board stating the name, age, sex, color and address of such person.
Every veterinarian who shall attend any animal within this Borough, having or suspected of having rabies, glanders or farcy, anthrax or any other communicable disease transmittable to humans, shall within 12 hours thereafter report in writing to this Board the location of such diseased animal, the type and character of the disease and the name and address of the owner.
It shall be the duty of any person having knowledge of any dog, cat or other animal infected with rabies or suspected of being infected with rabies within this Borough to forthwith notify this Board and, if possible, give the description of the animal, the location where it may be found and the name and address of the owner or person having custody thereof.
Whenever a dog, cat or other animal shall have bitten any person, the owner or person in charge thereof shall securely confine such animal for the purpose of observation in such a manner and for such a period as may be designated by the Health Officer.
Whenever death has been caused by any communicable disease, the transportation, care, disposal and burial of the body shall be in accordance with the regulation regarding the same as required by the State Sanitary Code and in accordance with such further regulation as this Board may direct.[1]
[1]
Editor's Note: See Ch. 433, Burials and Interments, of this Code, and Chapter V, Preparation, Handling, Transportation, Burial and Disinterment of Dead Human Bodies, of the State Sanitary Code.
[Amended 12-18-1974]
Any person, firm or corporation hindering or obstructing a member or employee or agent of the Board of Health or anyone duly authorized by the Board in the performance of his duties in entering any premises for inspection or the carrying out of any of the provisions of this chapter shall be subject to the penalty provisions contained in Chapter 420, General Provisions, Board of Health, Article I.