There are laws that look after the spread of infectious diseases. These provisions are called public health laws and play an important role in curbing infectious diseases. Public health laws can provide two crucial ways to promote the minimization of the influence of infectious diseases. First, the role of law is proactive or preventive: enhancing access to vaccinations and contraceptives, along with screening, education, counseling as well as other techniques aimed at minimizing disease exposure. Since infectious disease control and protection laws that include conflict with free movement, the right to control one’s health and body, and privacy and ownership rights, public health laws should represent a judgment-making process that combines those individual rights with public health in an ethical and transparent manner. Public health laws often involve penalties for failing to adhere to governmental public health instructions, or for indulging in behaviors that endanger public health. Legislators should not, however, dismiss the potential for unforeseen consequences resulting from laws that create criminal offenses to expose another person to the disease carelessly.
Even though the right to agree to medical treatment is a basic and prime human right for people, there are situations in which public health authorities may be justified in requiring compulsory patient diagnosis and treatment. Public health laws should permit mandatory medication directives only in conditions where the person concerned is unable or hesitant to consent to a diagnostic treatment, and where their behavior generates a substantial risk of serious spread of disease. Laws on public health should also involve procedural rights to defend the interests of those subject to medication orders. This could include a court requirement that each mandatory treatment order is reviewed within a specified period of time. Public health officials should guarantee that laws requiring care without approval are not used to discriminate against marginalized individuals and groups or to marginalize them.
Transmission of infectious diseases is prevented using mainly carried out in two ways-
(a) Immunization:
This mainly refers to vaccinations against infectious diseases. Governments of various countries may order that these highly infectious diseases necessitate compulsory vaccination, but such a prerequisite may be conditional on constitutional safeguards relating to the right to be free of non-consensual medical treatment or religious liberty.
(b) Screening:
Screening people to assess whether they have been diagnosed with an infectious disease or were exposed to it is a key public health policy. This helps healthcare professionals to start treatment on time, handle co-morbidities more efficiently, enable patients to minimize high-risk behavior and recognize the need for urgent treatment in some situations. Early treatment may also minimize transmission rates in addition to reducing the duration of the illness.
Through these measures and provisions, the government tries to minimize the risk of an epidemic caused by infectious diseases and promotes health stability in the country.
