Epidemics Act (EpidA)
English is not an official language of the Swiss Confederation. This translation is provided for information purposes only and has no legal force.
Section 1 Reports
Art. 11 Early detection and monitoring systems
The FOPH shall in cooperation with other federal agencies and the competent cantonal bodies operate systems for the early detection and monitoring of communicable diseases. It shall ensure coordination with international systems.
Art. 12 Duty to report
1 Doctors, hospitals and other public or private healthcare institutions shall report observations on communicable diseases, including the information required to identify the persons who are ill, infected or have been exposed and to establish the route of transmission: a. to the competent cantonal authority; b. in the case of certain pathogens, directly to the FOPH as well. 2 Laboratories shall report laboratory analysis findings on communicable diseases including the information required to identify the persons who are ill or infected to the competent cantonal authority and the FOPH. 3 The Federal Council may require that measures taken to prevent and control the disease as well as their effect are reported and that samples and test results are sent to the laboratories designated by the responsible authorities. 4 The competent cantonal authorities shall report observations that indicate a risk to public health to the FOPH. 5 Any person piloting a ship or an aircraft shall report obse
Art. 13 Regulation of reports
1 The Federal Council shall stipulate the observations on communicable diseases that must be reported, together with the methods, criteria and time limits for reporting. 2 In the case of specific report content, it may restrict the duty to report to selected doctors, to hospitals and other public or private healthcare institutions and to laboratories.
Art. 14 Reports for epidemiological monitoring and for research purposes
1 The FOPH may agree for the purpose of epidemiological monitoring and for research purposes with doctors, laboratories, hospitals and other public or private healthcare institutions that they report observations that are not subject to the duty to report to a body designated by the FOPH. 2 The report must be made in anonymised form.
Art. 15 Epidemiological investigations
1 The competent cantonal authorities shall ensure the required epidemiological investigations, in particular on the nature, cause, source of infection and spread of a detected or suspected disease. They shall coordinate their activities and inform the FOPH about the results. 2 The competent federal authority shall provide the cantonal authorities with professional support with the epidemiological investigations. It may conduct such investigations itself, particularly if the canton concerned requests it to do so.
Section 2 Laboratories
Art. 16 Licence requirement
1 Laboratories that conduct microbiological tests for detecting communicable diseases require a licence from the competent federal authority. 2 The Federal Council shall carry out the following tasks: a. designating the competent federal authority. b. regulating the requirements and procedure for granting the licence. c. specifying the licence holder's obligations. d. regulating supervision and in particular provide for the possibility of unannounced inspections. 3 Laboratories in doctors’ practices, hospital laboratories, pharmacy dispensaries and other laboratories that conduct analyses as part of the universal provision of services under the Federal Act of 18 March 1994 on Health Insurance (Health Insurance Act) are exempted from the licence requirement.
Para. 3 — SR 832.10
Art. 17 National reference centres and confirmation laboratories
The FOPH may designate individual laboratories as national reference centres or as confirmation laboratories and entrust the same with special tests and other special tasks.
Art. 18 Laboratory network
The cantons shall operate a network of regional laboratories and ensure cooperation with the competent federal authorities and the high security laboratories.