REPORTING REQUIREMENTS
Report all animal bites or animal contact
that may result in rabies of persons
Physicians reminded to also report deaths resulting from a reportable infectious disease
T
he Ministry of Health
and Long-Term Care is
reminding physicians of
two legislated reporting requirements to local Medical Officers of
Health (MOH) in Ontario.
The first requirement pertains to
reporting animal bites seen in any
health-care setting. With summer upon us, there is a greater
likelihood that individuals will
seek medical care for animal bites.
Under (Ontario Regulation 557
made under the Health Protection
and Promotion Act (HPPA), any
animal bite or animal contact that
may result in rabies in persons must
be reported to the local MOH. This
would include all bites from all
mammals (e.g., dogs, cats, bats, raccoons, skunks, foxes, horses, etc.).
Public health units respond to reports of animal bites by conducting
a complete rabies risk assessment
for the bite or contact, including
the need for an animal observation
period or rabies testing of the animal, and make a recommendation
regarding post-exposure prophy-
laxis. In order for the public health
units to conduct these assessments,
ALL BITES, or non-bite contacts
suspected for rabies exposure, must
be reported.
The second reporting requirement
involves reporting of deaths as a
result of a reportable infectious
disease. As per the Duty to Report
Death (Section 30) of the HPPA, a
physician or registered nurse in the
extended class who signs a medical
certificate of death where the cause
or contributing cause of death was a
reportable infectious disease, shall,
as soon as possible after signing
the certificate, report to the MOH
of the health unit where the death
occurred.
For more information, please read
the College’s Mandatory and Permissive Reporting policy at www.
cpso.on.ca.
DIALOGUE • Issue 2, 2014
25