Commissioner’s Requirements

Infectious Disease Outbreak
Section / Section 5. HealthcareServices
CR Number / 5.1.4 / Current Issue Date / October2015
Legislation & Policy / Corrections Act 1986
Corrections Regulations 2009
Public Health and Wellbeing Act 2008
Standard / Safety and Security Services – Emergency Management, Contingency Planning and Fire Safety
Attachments / List of Infectious Diseases
Forms / Nil

1PURPOSE

To provide prison General Managerswith the requirements on managing and reporting an outbreak of an infectious disease.

2REQUIREMENT

Processes must be in place to report an outbreak of infectious diseases.

3GUIDING PRINCIPLE

3.1An infectious disease may spread in a prison more rapidly than in the community. The containment and response to an infectious disease in a prison, requires an immediate response.

3.2The Public Health and Wellbeing Act 2008, requires the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) to be informed when a person is identified with one of the prescribed notifiable conditions referred to in the Act.

4CONTEXT

4.1To ensure the accurate, coordinated and timely provision of information to relevant stakeholders, the prison’s Health Service Provider (HSP) must inform the prison General Managerimmediately, of a suspected or confirmed case of infectious disease.

4.2The prison General Manager must have arrangements in place to ensure that the prison’s HSP and Justice Health (JH) advise him/her of necessary steps to isolate and contain the situation.

4.3The HSP should support local prison staff with infection control measures, including quarantine and isolation, social distancing, cleaning and disinfection requirements, and appropriate personal protective equipment.

5INSTRUCTION

5.1Protocol

5.1.1The prison General Manager, or delegate, is responsible for the prison’s day-to-day operations and is to notify the Deputy Commissioner, Operations or Duty Director and where relevant, the Regional or Deputy Director, of a suspected or confirmed case of infectious disease.

5.1.2The prison General Manager, or delegate, must notify staff and other prisons of prisoners who may have been affected and recently transferred.

5.1.3On receipt of pathology results, the HSP should inform the prison General Manager and contact JH immediately.

5.1.4JH will coordinate communication regarding the infectious disease and its management, between the prison(s) affected, HSP staff, DHHS and other relevant health bodies.

5.1.5The incident must be reported as a notifiable incident and in accordance with Commissioner’s Requirement – Incident Reporting.

Jan Shuard PSM Commissioner

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Commissioner’s Requirement – Infectious Disease Outbreak

Commissioner’s Requirements

Information below this point is administrative supporting detail

only and not subject to Commissioner’s review or approval.

Acronyms
DHHS / Department of Health and Human Services
HSP / Health Service Provider
JH / Justice Health
Definitions
Nil
Associated Commissioner’s Requirements
1.3.1 - Incident Reporting
1.3.3 - Reporting and Review of Prisoner Deaths
Document Detail
Title: / Infectious Disease Outbreak
Owner: / Manager, Operations Directorate
Version Control
Version / Date / Description
V1 / Oct-15 / First Issue

List of Infectious Diseases

List of the conditions contained in Schedule 4 of the Public Health and Wellbeing Regulations 2009:

GROUP A – immediate notification by telephone of an initial diagnosis, followed by written notification within 5 days / GROUP B – written notification within 5 days / GROUP C – written notification within 5 days
- Anthrax
- Botulism
- Cholera
- Chikungunya virus infection
- Diphtheria
- Food-borne and water-borne illness (two or more related cases)
- Haemolytic Uraemic Syndrome (HUS)
- Japanese encephalitis
- Legionellosis
- Measles
- Murray Valley encephalitis virus infection
- Haemophilus influenzae, type B (meningitis, epiglottitis, other invasive infections)
- Hepatitis A
- Meningococcal infection (invasive)
- Paratyphoid
- Poliomyelitis
- Plague
- Rabies
- Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS)
- Smallpox
- Tularaemia
- Typhoid
- Viral haemorrhagic fevers
- Yellow fever / - Barmah Forest virus infection
- Arbovirus infections – other arbovirus infections
- Blood lead greater than 10mcg/dL
- Brucellosis
- Campylobacter infection
- Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD)
- Cryptosporidiosis
- Dengue virus infection
- Hepatitis B (newly acquired)
- Hepatitis B (unspecified)
- Hepatitis C (newly acquired)
- Hepatitis C (unspecified)
- Hepatitis D
- Hepatitis E
- Hepatitis viral (not further specified)
- Herpes zoster
- Influenza (laboratory confirmed)
- Kunjin virus infection
- Leprosy
- Leptospirosis
- Listeriosis
- Lyssavirus – Australian Bat lyssavirus
- Lyssavirus – other (specify)
- Malaria
- Mumps
- Mycobacterium ulcerans
- Pneumococcal infection (invasive)
- Psittacosis (ornithosis)
- Pertussis
- Q Fever
- Ross River virus infection
- Rubella
- Congenital Rubella
- Salmonellosis
- Shiga toxin and Verotoxin producing Escherichia coli (STEC/VTEC)
- Shigellosis
- Tetanus
- Tuberculosis
- variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (vCJD)
- Varicella / - Chlamydia trachomatis infection
- Donovanosis
- Gonococcal infection
- Syphilis (less than 2 years duration)
- Syphilis (2 years or more duration or unspecified)
- Congenital syphilis
Group D written notification within 5 days
- Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (AIDS)
- Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) infection

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Commissioner’s Requirement – Infectious Disease Outbreak