Senate Bill No. 529
(By Senators Wooton, Bailey, Walker and Macnaughtan)
[Introduced February 19, 1996; referred to the Committee on
Health and Human Resources; and then to the Committee on the
Judiciary.]
A BILL to amend and reenact section five, article five-a, chapter
twenty-six of the code of West Virginia, one thousand nine
hundred thirty-one, as amended, relating to waiver of notice
requirements in certain instances for persons with
communicable tuberculosis; and testing and reinstatement of
notice.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That section five, article five-a, chapter twenty-six of
the code of West Virginia, one thousand nine hundred thirty-one,
as amended, be amended and reenacted to read as follows:
ARTICLE 5A. TUBERCULOSIS CONTROL.
§26-5A-5. Procedure when patient is health menace to others.
If such practicing physician, public health officer, or
chief medical officer having under observation or care any person who is suffering from tuberculosis in a communicable stage is of
the opinion that the environmental conditions of such person are
not suitable for proper isolation or control by any type of local
quarantine as prescribed by the state health department bureau of
public health of the department of health and human resources,
and that such person is unable or unwilling to conduct him or
herself and to live in such a manner as not to expose members of
his or her family or household or other persons with whom he or
she may be associated to danger of infection, he or she shall
report the facts to the department of bureau of public health
which shall forthwith investigate or have investigated the
circumstances alleged. If it shall find that any such person's
physical condition is a health menace to others, the department
of bureau of public health shall petition the circuit court of
the county in which such person resides, or the judge thereof in
vacation, alleging that such person is afflicted with
communicable tuberculosis and that such person's physical
condition is a health menace to others, and requesting an order
of the court committing such person to one of the state
tuberculosis institutions for the treatment of tuberculosis.
Upon receiving the petition, the court shall fix a date for
hearing thereof and notice of such petition and the time and place for hearing thereof shall be served personally, at least
seven days before the hearing, upon the person who is afflicted
with tuberculosis and alleged to be dangerous to the health of
others, Provided, That the court may waive the notice required by
this section if the commissioner of the bureau of public health
or his or her designee presents evidence to the court that such
person is either: an alcoholic or drug user in need of commitment
to a detoxification center or a chronically recalcitrant patient
in need of hospitalization for two or more weeks to render their
communicable tuberculosis non-infectious, Provided, however,
That, after successful treatment which can be demonstrated by
laboratory testing or x-ray or scans such a person can be shown
to no longer be infectious then they shall receive their notice
and proceed to hearing.
If, upon such hearing, it shall appear that the complaint of the
department of bureau of public health is well founded, that such
person is afflicted with communicable tuberculosis, and that such
person is a source of danger to others, the court shall commit
the individual to an institution maintained for the care and
treatment of persons afflicted with tuberculosis. Such person
shall be deemed to be committed until discharged in the manner
authorized in this section. The chief medical officer of the institution to which any such person has been committed, may
discharge such person when in his or her judgment the person may
be discharged without danger to the health or life of others. He
or she shall report immediately to the department of bureau of
public health each such discharge.
Every person committed under the provisions of this section
shall observe all the rules and regulations of the institution.
Any patient so committed may, by direction of the chief medical
officer of the institution, be placed apart from the others and
restrained from leaving the institution so long as he or she
continues to be afflicted with tuberculosis and remains a health
menace to other people.
Nothing in this section shall be construed to prohibit any
person committed to any institution under the provisions thereof
from applying to the supreme court of appeals for a review of the
evidence on which such commitment was made. Nothing in this
section shall be construed or operate to empower or authorize the
state commissioner of public institutions, the department of
bureau of public health, the department of health and human
resources or chief medical officer of the institution, or their
representatives, to restrict in any manner the individual's right
to select any method of tuberculosis treatment offered by the institution.
NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to protect the public
health in cases where persons with contagious tuberculosis might
avoid treatment and put others at risk.
Strike-throughs indicate language that would be stricken
from the present law, and underscoring indicates new language
that would be added.