Report 2018-116 Recommendation Responses

Report 2018-116: San Diego's Hepatitis A Outbreak: By Acting More Quickly, the County and City of San Diego Might Have Reduced the Spread of the Disease (Release Date: December 2018)

Recommendation for Legislative Action

To better ensure that local health officers can promptly respond to disease outbreaks, the Legislature should clarify existing state law to specify that the local health officer for each geographic jurisdiction may issue directives to other governmental entities within that jurisdiction to take action as the officer deems necessary to control the spread of communicable diseases.

Description of Legislative Action

AB 262 (Chapter 798, Statutes of 2019) authorizes the local health officer to issue orders to other governmental entities within the local health officer's jurisdiction to take any action the local health officer deems necessary to control the spread of the communicable disease.

California State Auditor's Assessment of 1-Year Status: Legislation Enacted


Description of Legislative Action

AB 262 (Gloria) would require a local health officer, during an outbreak of a communicable disease or upon the imminent and proximate threat of a communicable disease outbreak or epidemic that threatens the public's health, to notify and update governmental entities within the health officer's jurisdiction about certain communicable diseases that may affect them, if, in the opinion of the local health officer, action or inaction on the part of the governmental entity might affect outbreak response efforts.

California State Auditor's Assessment of 6-Month Status: Legislation Introduced


Description of Legislative Action

Assembly Bill (AB) 262 (Gloria) would authorize the local public health officer to issue directives to other governmental entities within the health officer's jurisdiction to take any action the health officer deems necessary to control the spread of the communicable disease.

California State Auditor's Assessment of 60-Day Status: Legislation Introduced


All Recommendations in 2018-116