Legal Acts in English

This Law shall govern the protection of population against communicable diseases and special health issues, the communicable diseases endangering the health of the population of the Republic of Serbia shall be defined, and the prevention and suppression of which is of general interest for the Republic of Serbia, the implementation of the epidemiological supervision and measures, the implementation thereof and ensuring the means for their implementation, conducting supervision over the enforcement of this Law, as well as other issues significant for the protection of the population against communicable diseases.

Certain terms used in this Law shall have the following meaning:

1) communicable disease shall be a disease caused by specific pathogen which occurs as consequence of transmission of agents or their toxic products from the infected person or another reservoir to a sensitive host, either directly from a person to a person or indirectly through contaminated food, water, subjects of general use, transmission host, vector or still environment, as well as by exchange of pathogen-contaminated liquid;

2) communicable disease pathogen shall be the pathogenic microorganisms, its toxic product or prion;

3) contact person shall be the person exposed to the case of communicable disease or animal or contaminated environment in such a manner that the possibility of infection existed;

4) reservoir of infection shall be such a person, animal, insect or other arthropod, plant, soil, water or substance, as well the combination thereof, in which a pathogen normally lives and reproduces, and on which its survival primarily depends, and where it reproduces in such a manner that it can be transmitted to a sensitive person;

5) source of infection shall be a person, animal, object or substance from which the pathogen is transmitted to a sensitive person;

6) carrier of a communicable disease pathogen shall be a person or animal carrying pathogens, and having no present symptoms or signs of a disease and thus representing the reservoir of infection;

7) epidemic of communicable disease shall be the outbreak of a communicable disease, unusual according to the number of cases, time, location and encompassed population or unusual increase in the number of the diseased with complications or fatal outcome, as well as the occurrence of two or several, mutually related cases of a communicable disease, which has never or for several years has not occurred in one area, or occurrence of a larger number of diseases, whose pathogen is unknown, and accompanied by febrile state;

8) epidemic of greater epidemiological significance shall designate the occurrence of severe clinical forms of communicable diseases and/or death caused by a communicable disease, whereas the danger of occurrence of sever economic and social consequences exists, as well as of the cross-border transmission of disease, as well as the recurrence of cases of the eliminated or eradicated, communicable disease;

9) pandemic of a communicable disease shall be the outbreak of a communicable disease that crosses the state borders and spreads across a larger part of the world or the entire world, endangering people in all affected areas;

10) infected area shall be the area at which one or more sources of disease exist and in which conditions for the occurrence and the spread of disease exist;

11) endangered area shall be the area at which a communicable disease can be transmitted from an infected area and in which conditions for the spreading of the disease exist;

11a) countries with adverse epidemiological situation shall be the countries affected by the epidemic of a communicable disease, and which have, for the purpose of protecting from entry of such disease into the territory of the Republic of Serbia, have been defined by the act of the minister in charge of health affairs, and at the proposal of the Institute;

12) epidemiological supervision shall be the continuous and systematic collection of data on communicable diseases, infections accompanied by health protection, antimicrobial resistance, factors contributing to their occurrence and transmission, the effects of measures aimed at their prevention and suppression, processing, analysis and interpretation of collected data, as well as forwarding feedback to the participants and collecting data, informing the expert and other public, and all for the purpose of prevention of occurrence, as well as the suppression of communicable diseases, infections accompanies by health protection and antimicrobial resistance;

13) epidemiological investigation of a communicable disease shall be the collection and analysis of data on factors which contributed to the occurrence of a determined communicable disease;

14) epidemiological research shall be the application of epidemiological measures for the purpose of determining the circumstances which lead to the occurrence of epidemic of a communicable disease, the detection of reservoirs, sources and routes of transmission, as well as the risks of further spreading of epidemic within a population;

15) investing an epidemic shall be the epidemiological work for the purpose of clarifying and suppressing the epidemic;

16) tracing contacts shall be a measure conducted in order to trace the persons who are at risk of developing a disease or who have already developed the disease;

17) health supervision shall designate the health examinations and epidemiological testing of persons who were in contact with the diseased person and/or carrier of the communicable disease, or who resided in the hotspots of the communicable disease;

18) prevention of occurrence of a communicable disease shall be a set of measures which are continuously conducted for the purpose of preventing the occurrence of infection or a communicable disease;

19) suppression of a communicable disease shall be a set of measures conducted against a communicable disease already present, for the purpose of reducing its frequency;

19a) personal protection against infection shall be the duty of each and every individual, to undertake measures of personal protection, of one's own health and life in line with the nature of a disease, and the non-compliance of which the health and lives of other persons may be endangered by a communicable disease;

20) early warning system shall be a comprehensive system of supervision over the communicable diseases and the relevant syndromes of the infectious aetiology for the purpose of quick detection of the newly diseased, warning and undertaking of urgent measures under the conditions defined by the health rulebook;

21) immunization shall be a preventive measure of protection of persons against communicable diseases, by giving vaccines and/or immunoglobulin of humane origin, immunobiological preparation, which contain specific antibodies and monoclonal antibodies;

22) haemioprophylaxis shall be the administration of medicines to healthy persons for the purpose of prevention of occurrence of a communicable disease;

23) elimination of a certain communicable disease shall be the absence of a clinically manifested disease on a specific territory, under the conditions of existing agents, with the implementation of supervision for the purpose of detection of entry of such communicable disease from other countries and measures for the purpose of prevention of its transmission;

24) eradication of a specific communicable disease shall be complete absence of a disease and pathogens thereof, on a specific territory, with the implementation of supervision, for the purpose of detecting entry from other countries;

25) isolation shall be the counter-epidemic measure of separation, during the infection period, of the infected persons to such locations and under such conditions, so as to prevent or limit the direct, i.e. indirect transmission of infectious pathogen from the infected persons to sensitive persons or who may transmit the pathogen to others;

25a) home isolation shall be the counter-epidemic measure of separation, under home conditions, of persons infected, but without symptoms or with such manifestation of the disease that does not require hospital treatment, during the period of contagiousness, in such a manner that shall prevent or limit direct, i.e. indirect transmission, i.e. possible transmission of the infectious pathogen to other persons;

26) quarantine shall be a measure restricting activities of "contact", i.e. healthy persons and animals exposed to the case of a communicable disease, for the period of its infection, with the aim of preventing the spreading of a communicable disease;

26a) quarantine under home conditions shall be the measure of limitation of activities for the purpose of supervising the health state of contacts, i.e. healthy persons who were exposed to the case of a communicable disease, during the period of contagiousness, with the aim of preventing the spread of the communicable disease;

27) disinfection in a broader sense shall be a set of measures which efficiently remove, disable or destroy the microorganisms, to such an extent that they are unable to cause an infection. Disinfection in a narrow sense poses a reduction of the number of organisms, below the infectious dose, i.e. the destruction or weakening of the pathogenic microorganisms;

28) disinsection shall be a set of measures for destruction of insects and other arthropods which may transmit the infectious pathogens;

29) deratisation shall be a set of measures for the destruction of rodents which may transmit the infectious pathogens;

30) state of emergency, i.e. an event, shall be such a state when the risks and threat or consequences of disasters, extraordinary events or other threats to the population, environment and material goods, are of such scope and intensity, that their occurrence or consequences cannot be prevented or removed by regular action, and special measures therefore need to applied;

31) health education shall be a process, by virtue of which individuals and groups of people are taught to act in a manner directed towards improvement, maintenance and establishment of health;

32) public service for the purpose of this Law shall be the institutions, enterprises and other forms of organization which perform activities, i.e. tasks by virtue of which the exercise of the citizens' rights is ensured, in the area of education, science, culture, public informing, PTT traffic and similar;

33) public healthcare measure shall be the decision or activity aiming to prevent, monitor or suppress serious risks to public health or mitigation of their impact to public health;

34) serious cross-border threat to health shall be the life threatening or in other manner serious threat to the health of biological, chemical, ecological or unknown origin, spreading or implying a significant risk from cross-border spreading and which may require coordinated international reaction in order to secure a high level of protection of the population's health;

35) reference laboratory shall be the laboratory which shall perform the health protection tasks of general interest, set forth by the law, and in particular: diagnosis, determination and standardization of the infectious pathogens, in line with its prescribed activities, and which is part of the national network for public health, established for the purpose of laboratory support to the system of epidemiological supervision, warning and response at a national level (in line with the document WHO /CDS/CR/LAB/2004);

36) nosocomial infection (health protection related infection) shall be the infection of a patient or staff of a healthcare institution, private practice and social institution in which health activity is performed, occurring in relation to exposure to healthcare procedures, treatment or other actions, as a result of organism reaction to the presence of infectious pathogens, and which was neither present nor was the patient in incubation at the moment of admission;

37) case definition shall be a set of agreed diagnostic criteria (clinical, laboratory and/or epidemiological), which must be met in order for a person to be designated as suspected of, probable or determined case of a certain communicable disease, in a certain population;

38) objects of general use shall be the cutlery, paraphernalia, devices, packaging and other objects coming in contact with the food, children toys, as well as objects intended for children and infants, cosmetic products, cosmetic products with specific purpose or packaging for the packing of such products, objects which in direct use come into direct contact with the skin and mucous, objects for decoration of the face and body, piercing and jewellery imitation;

39) sanitary-technical and hygiene conditions shall be the conditions which the objects need to fulfil (premises, facilities, devices, furniture, equipment and paraphernalia), dedicated means of transport with the aim of protecting the health of population in line with the law;

40) sanitary supervision shall be the inspection supervision which is carried out by a sanitary inspector, in line with the law;

41) ship shall be a naval ship or a ship registered for navigation in inner waters, on international travel.

The expressions used in this Law shall be in grammatical male gender, and shall imply the natural male and female gender, of the persons they refer to.

The protection of population against communicable diseases shall be the organized and comprehensive activity of the society, with the aim of preventing and suppressing the communicable diseases, as well as their elimination and eradication.

The protection of population against communicable diseases shall be carried out by the performance of the epidemiological supervision and planning, organization and application of the prescribed measures, the control of such measures and ensuring material and other means for their implementation.

The protection of population against input of communicable diseases from other countries and the application of measures set forth by the laws, ratified international health and sanitary conventions and international treaties.

The protection of population against communicable diseases which may be transferred from animals to people, shall be carried out by the healthcare institutions, private practice and legal entities performing the healthcare activity in cooperation with the competent bodies from the veterinary activity, and comprising the mutual reporting on occurrence and movement of such diseases, organization and implementation of counter-epidemic, hygiene and other measures for prevention, i.e. suppression of certain communicable diseases.

The implementation of measures of protection of the population against communicable diseases set forth by this Law and the ensuring of the means for implementation thereof, shall have a priority compared to the implementation of other measures in the area of health protection.