The Southern Nevada Health District board approved regulations Thursday that require more noninfectious diseases and preventable health events to be reported to the agency.
Under state and federal laws, infectious diseases, such as AIDS, influenza and chicken pox, are required to be reported to the Health District or the state's Department of Health and Human Services.
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The new Health District regulations expands the reporting requirements to include certain bacterial infections, exposures to toxic metals, drownings, chemical spills and disease outbreaks that may impact the overall health of the community, said Brian Labus, senior epidemiologist.
"These regulations are yet another tool that we have to gather information and to prevent health threats,'' he said.
An example of these new diseases include bacterial infections that can lead to meningitis, strep throat and impetigo.
The Health District also wants blood test results of residents that show high levels of mercury, arsenic and lead.
The diseases chosen by Health District officials are on the Nationally Notifiable Diseases List. Labus said they're already being reported to local health agencies in other states.
And in Southern Nevada, "some of these are already being reported on a voluntary basis by doctors, hospitals and laboratories,'' Labus said. "But, in some cases, things are being not reported. For example, let's say there's a group of 15 people at a location and there's a chemical spill. Well, someone may not want to report that to us because of liability issues and the media attention it might gain. Having these regulations requires them to report such an event to the Health District so that we can do our job to protect the residents of Clark County from exposure.''
During the Health District meeting, some board members asked if these new regulations, and the additional reporting required under them, would impose any additional burden on health care providers.
Dr. Joe Hardy, a Health District board member, said it would not because health care providers are already reporting other diseases.
