Federal Act
on Controlling Communicable Human Diseases
(Epidemics Act, EpidA)

¹ Doc­tors, hos­pit­als and oth­er pub­lic or private health­care in­sti­tu­tions shall re­port ob­ser­va­tions on com­mu­nic­able dis­eases, in­clud­ing the in­form­a­tion re­quired to identi­fy the per­sons who are ill, in­fec­ted or have been ex­posed and to es­tab­lish the route of trans­mis­sion:

a.

to the com­pet­ent can­ton­al au­thor­ity;

b.

in the case of cer­tain patho­gens, dir­ectly to the FOPH as well.

² Labor­at­or­ies shall re­port labor­at­ory ana­lys­is find­ings on com­mu­nic­able dis­eases in­clud­ing the in­form­a­tion re­quired to identi­fy the per­sons who are ill or in­fec­ted to the com­pet­ent can­ton­al au­thor­ity and the FOPH.

³ The Fed­er­al Coun­cil may re­quire that meas­ures taken to pre­vent and con­trol the dis­ease as well as their ef­fect are re­por­ted and that samples and test res­ults are sent to the labor­at­or­ies des­ig­nated by the re­spons­ible au­thor­it­ies.

⁴ The com­pet­ent can­ton­al au­thor­it­ies shall re­port ob­ser­va­tions that in­dic­ate a risk to pub­lic health to the FOPH.

⁵ Any per­son pi­lot­ing a ship or an air­craft shall re­port ob­ser­va­tions that in­dic­ate a risk to pub­lic health to the port or air­port op­er­at­or.

⁶ Ob­ser­va­tions must be re­por­ted if they re­late to com­mu­nic­able dis­eases that:

a.

may cause epi­dem­ics;

b.

may cause ser­i­ous con­sequences;

c.

are nov­el or un­ex­pec­ted; or

d.

are sub­ject to mon­it­or­ing by in­ter­na­tion­al agree­ment.