Reports of cases – Wis. Stat. Ann. § 252.05

Health care providers must report to their local health office all suspected or confirmed incidences of communicable diseases among their patient base. Tribal health agencies may choose to report communicable disease incidences to their local health officer. Local health officers must subsequently submit communicable disease reports to the department of health services.

All laboratories, as specified by the department, must report to the department the presence of communicable diseases in their lab specimens.

Any person that knows or suspects that a person has a communicable disease must report this knowledge to their local health officer or the department of health services.

Communicable disease reports by providers and laboratories must contain “the name, sex, age, and residence of the person, the communicable disease, and other facts the department or local health officer requires.”

Local health officers must create a permanent record after receiving a communicable disease report and, upon request, send either the original record or copy to the department. The records should be stored either electronically or in paper form and must be treated as patient health care records.

Local health officers must immediately alert the department upon the occurrence of an outbreak or epidemic and keep the department up to date regarding prevalence of the disease.