Question & AnswerQ&A (Act No. 3573)
The main purpose of Act No. 3573 is to provide for the prevention and suppression of dangerous communicable diseases in the Philippines.
Any person may be inoculated, administered, or injected with prophylactic preparations of recognized efficiency and standard to prevent or suppress dangerous communicable diseases, and no person shall refuse or hinder such protective measures as deemed advisable by the Director of Health or his authorized representative.
Every physician, director, superintendent, or person in charge of a hospital, institution or dispensary, any householder, tenant, or occupant of any building, and any director, manager, or person in charge of a college, convent, boarding school or factory having knowledge of any case of reportable or communicable disease must immediately notify the nearest health station.
Notification must be made immediately to the nearest health station either by telephone, messenger, or written notice specifying the disease and the name and address of the person afflicted.
They include diseases such as Actinomycosis, acute anterior poliomyelitis, anthrax, Asiatic cholera, beriberi, cerebrospinal meningitis, diphtheria, dysentery, encephalitis lethargica, filariasis, food poisoning, glanders, influenza, leprosy, malaria, measles, mumps, ophthalmia necrotorum, plague, pneumonia, rabies, relapsing fever, scarlet fever, septic sore throat, tetanus, trachoma, tuberculosis, typhoid and paratyphoid fever, typhus fever, variola or smallpox, varioloid, varicella, Vincent's angina, whooping cough, and yellow fever, as well as any other disease declared by the Director of Health as communicable and dangerous.
Yes, the Director of Health may publicly declare any other disease as communicable and dangerous to the public health to be included as a reportable disease under this law.
Any person who violates any provision of this law shall be punished by a fine of not more than one hundred pesos.
This Act took effect upon its approval on November 26, 1929.
The Director of Health or his authorized representative has the authority to deem protective measures advisable and to administer prophylactic inoculations.
The notification must specify the disease and the name and address of the person afflicted.