1. (1) Schools and day care centers. Any teacher, principal, director or nurse serving a school or day care center may send home, for the purpose of diagnosis and treatment, any pupil suspected of having a communicable disease or of having any other disease or condition having the potential to affect the health of other students and staff including but not limited to pediculosis and scabies. The teacher, principal, director or nurse authorizing the action shall ensure that the parent, guardian or other person legally responsible for the child or other adult with whom the child resides and the nurse serving the child’s school or day care center are immediately informed of the action. A teacher who sends a pupil home shall also notify the principal or director of the action.

2. (2) Personal care. Home health agency personnel providing personal care in the home and persons providing personal care in health care facilities, day care centers and other comparable facilities shall refrain from providing care while they are able to transmit a communicable disease through the provision of that care, in accord with the methods of communicable disease control contained in official guidance of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, unless specified otherwise by the state epidemiologist.

   Note: The official guidance of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention entitled, “Guideline for Infection Control in Health Care Personnel, 1998,” is on file in the Department’s Division of Public Health and the Legislative Reference Bureau, and may be found in the American Journal of Infection Control, vol. 26, 1998, pp. 289-354.

3. (3) Food handlers. Food handlers shall refrain from handling food while they have a disease in a form that is communicable by food handling, in accord with the methods of communicable disease control contained in the official report of the American Public Health Association, unless specified otherwise by the state epidemiologist.

   Note: The official report of the American Public Health Association entitled Control of Communicable Disease Manual, 20th edition (2015), edited by David L. Heymann, is on file in the Department’s Division of Public Health and the Legislative Reference Bureau, and is available for purchase from the American Public Health Association, Publication Sales, PO Box 933019, Atlanta, GA 31193-3019.

4. (4) Prevention of ophthalmia neonatorum. The attending physician or midwife shall ensure placement of 2 drops of a one percent solution of silver nitrate, or a 1-2 centimeter ribbon of an ophthalmic ointment containing 0.5% erythromycin or one percent tetracycline, in each eye of a newborn child as soon as possible after delivery but not later than one hour after delivery. No more than one newborn child may be treated from an individual container.

History

History: Cr. Register, April, 1984, No. 340, eff. 5-1-84; r. and recr. (4), Register, November, 1984, No. 347, eff. 12-1-84; am. (1) to (3), Register, February, 1989, No. 398, eff. 3-1-89; renum. from HFS 145.06 and am., Register, March, 2000, No. 531, eff. 4-1-00; CR 17-014: am. (2), (3), Register June 2018 No. 750 eff. 7-1-18; correction in (3) made under s. 35.17, Stats., Register June 2018 No. 750.