The director of the local health department, as the local health officer, shall be

The director of the local health department, as the local health officer, shall be responsible for the control of communicable diseases and other conditions within his or her jurisdiction considered prejudicial to the public health. It shall be his or her duty to collect and make reports as required to the Mississippi State Department of Health, to provide consultation services to physicians regarding communicable diseases, to advise and consult with all others in matters relating to public health, and to investigate reports of known or suspected communicable diseases or of conditions which might be prejudicial to the public health. It shall be his or her duty to determine in individual cases or groups of cases whether to impose restrictions on the activities of patients or contacts of persons with a communicable disease and to fix the period of isolation for such diseases. For all the diseases listed in Appendix A, Class 1A and Class 1B, the local health officer shall, on first knowledge or suspicion, conduct an investigation into all the circumstances and prescribe such reasonable methods of control as may be calculated to minimize the danger of further dissemination of the disease process. The measures proposed in the most current edition of the Control of Communicable Diseases Manual, published by the American Public Health Association shall be considered as supplementary. In all matters where there is disagreement as to diagnosis, isolation or in any other situation where the responsibility rests with the health officer, the opinion of the health officer shall prevail. In the discharge of his or her duties, the health officer or designee shall not be denied the right of entry to any premises nor shall he or she be denied pertinent patient health information and patient identifiers.