(a) If any attending physician or other person knows or has good reason to suspect that a person having tuberculosis is behaving so as to expose other persons to infection, or is about to so conduct themselves, the attending physician or other person shall notify the state, district, municipal or county health officer of the name and address of the diseased person and the essential facts in the case.
Terms Used In Tennessee Code 68-9-201
Commissioner: means the commissioner of health or the commissioner's duly authorized representative. See Tennessee Code 68-9-103
Jurisdiction: (1) The legal authority of a court to hear and decide a case. Concurrent jurisdiction exists when two courts have simultaneous responsibility for the same case. (2) The geographic area over which the court has authority to decide cases.
Person: includes a corporation, firm, company or association. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
Physician: means any doctor of medicine or doctor of osteopathy duly licensed to practice the doctor's profession in Tennessee or the state in which the doctor resides and lawfully practices the doctor's profession. See Tennessee Code 68-9-103
State: when applied to the different parts of the United States, includes the District of Columbia and the several territories of the United States. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
Tuberculosis: means a disease caused by the human tubercle bacillus, whether infectious or noninfectious. See Tennessee Code 68-9-103
(b)State, district, municipal and county health officers involved in tuberculosis control and elimination shall notify appropriate health authorities of jurisdictions in the appropriate states, territories, and municipalities when an individual with confirmed or clinically diagnosed infectious tuberculosis or currently under treatment for tuberculosis disease relocates from Tennessee into another jurisdiction, such notification being subject to approval of the state health officer or such officer’s designee. Notwithstanding any law to the contrary, the commissioner of health is authorized to notify the appropriate tuberculosis infection control staff of this or another state of an individual’s tuberculosis infection for the sole purpose of containing a potential threat to the public health and welfare or to assure completion of proper treatment of the diseased person. All persons who receive notification of the infectious condition of an individual under this subsection (b) shall hold the information in the strictest confidence and shall not reveal the information to others. A person making disclosure by providing patient identifying information and medical information related to the patient’s tuberculosis status is immune from liability for making this disclosure of information for the purpose of preventing the further spread of disease and assuring completion of proper treatment of the diseased person.
