PRINTER'S NO. 647
No. 613 Session of 1999
INTRODUCED BY KASUNIC, STOUT, BOSCOLA AND STAPLETON,
MARCH 17, 1999
REFERRED TO PUBLIC HEALTH AND WELFARE, MARCH 17, 1999
AN ACT
1 Amending the act of April 23, 1956 (1955 P.L.1510, No.500),
2 entitled, as amended, "An act providing for the prevention
3 and control of communicable and non-communicable diseases
4 including venereal diseases, fixing responsibility for
5 disease prevention and control, requiring reports of
6 diseases, and authorizing treatment of venereal diseases, and
7 providing for premarital and prenatal blood tests; amending,
8 revising and consolidating the laws relating thereto; and
9 repealing certain acts," providing for health care providers
10 who have tested positive for human immunodeficiency virus
11 (HIV).
12 The General Assembly of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania
13 hereby enacts as follows:
14 Section 1. Section 2 of the act of April 23, 1956 (1955
15 P.L.1510, No.500), known as the Disease Prevention and Control
16 Law of 1955, amended September 29, 1994 (P.L.516, No.75), is
17 amended to read:
18 Section 2. Definitions.--
19 The following terms, whenever used in this act, have the
20 meanings indicated in this section, except where the context
21 indicates a clearly different meaning:
22 (a) Board. The State Advisory Health Board.
1 (b) Carrier. A person who, without any apparent symptoms of
2 a communicable disease, harbors a specific infectious agent and
3 may serve as a source of infection.
4 (c) Communicable Disease. An illness due to an infectious
5 agent or its toxic products which is transmitted, directly or
6 indirectly, to a well person from an infected person, animal or
7 arthropod, or through the agency of an intermediate host, vector
8 of the inanimate environment.
9 (d) Department. The State Department of Health.
10 (d.1) Health care provider. A physician, nurse, emergency
11 medical services worker, chiropractor, optometrist,
12 psychologist, nurse-midwife, physical therapist, physician
13 assistant, dentist or other person providing medical, dental,
14 nursing, drug or alcohol rehabilitation services, mental health
15 services, other health care services or an employe or agent of
16 such individual.
17 [(d.1)] (d.2) HIV-related test. Any laboratory test or
18 series of tests for any virus, antibody, antigen or etiologic
19 agent whatsoever thought to cause or to indicate the presence of
20 HIV infection.
21 (e) Isolation. The separation for the period of
22 communicability of infected persons or animals from other
23 persons or animals in such places and under such conditions as
24 will prevent the direct or indirect transmission of the
25 infectious agent from infected persons or animals to other
26 persons or animals who are susceptible or who may spread the
27 disease to others.
28 (f) Local board or department of health. The board of health
29 or the department of public health of a city, borough,
30 incorporated town or township of the first class, or a county
19990S0613B0647 - 2 -
1 department of health, or joint county department of health.
2 (g) Local health officer. The head of a local department of
3 health.
4 (h) Municipality. A city, borough, incorporated town or
5 township.
6 (i) Quarantine. The limitation of freedom of movement of
7 persons or animals who have been exposed to a communicable
8 disease for a period of time equal to the longest usual
9 incubation period of the disease in such manner as to prevent
10 effective contact with those not so exposed. Quarantine may be
11 complete, or, as defined below, it may be modified, or it may
12 consist merely of surveillance or segregation.
13 (1) Modified quarantine is a selected, partial limitation of
14 freedom of movement, determined on the basis of differences in
15 susceptibility or danger of disease transmission, which is
16 designed to meet particular situations. Modified quarantine
17 includes, but is not limited to, the exclusion of children from
18 school and the prohibition or the restriction of those exposed
19 to a communicable disease from engaging in particular
20 occupations.
21 (2) Surveillance is the close supervision of persons and
22 animals exposed to a communicable disease without restricting
23 their movement.
24 (3) Segregation is the separation for special control or
25 observation of one or more persons or animals from other persons
26 or animals to facilitate the control of a communicable disease.
27 (j) Regulation. Any rule or regulation issued by the board,
28 or any ordinance, rule or regulation enacted or issued by any
29 municipality or county department of health, or joint county
30 department of health, pursuant to this act.
19990S0613B0647 - 3 -
1 (k) Reportable disease. (a) Any communicable disease
2 declared reportable by regulation; (b) any unusual or group
3 expression of illness which, in the opinion of the secretary,
4 may be a public health emergency; and (c) such non-communicable
5 diseases and conditions for which the secretary may authorize
6 reporting to provide data and information which, in the opinion
7 of the Advisory Health Board, are needed in order effectively to
8 carry out those programs of the department designed to protect
9 and promote the health of the people of the Commonwealth, or to
10 determine the need for the establishment of such programs.
11 (l) Secretary. The State Secretary of Health.
12 Section 2. Section 5 of the act is amended to read:
13 Section 5. Control Measures.--
14 (a) Upon the receipt by a local board or department of
15 health or by the department, as the case may be, of a report of
16 a disease which is subject to isolation, quarantine, or any
17 other control measure, the local board or department of health
18 or the department shall carry out the appropriate control
19 measures in such manner and in such place as is provided by rule
20 or regulation.
21 (b) In the case of a health care provider who has tested
22 positive for human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), the department
23 shall require that the health care provider refrain from any
24 form of patient contact that may expose a patient to the risk of
25 contracting the virus.
26 Section 3. Section 15 of the act is reenacted and amended to
27 read:
28 Section 15. Confidentiality of Reports and Records.--(a)
29 State and local health authorities may not disclose reports of
30 diseases, any records maintained as a result of any action taken
19990S0613B0647 - 4 -
1 in consequence of such reports, or any other records maintained
2 pursuant to this act or any regulations, to any person who is
3 not a member of the department or of a local board or department
4 of health, except where necessary to carry out the purposes of
5 this act. State and local health authorities may permit the use
6 of data contained in disease reports and other records,
7 maintained pursuant to this act, or any regulation, for research
8 purposes, subject to strict supervision by the health
9 authorities to insure that the use of the reports and records is
10 limited to the specific research purposes.
11 (b) Notwithstanding any provisions of the act of November
12 29, 1990 (P.L.585, No.148), known as the "Confidentiality of
13 HIV-Related Information Act," the department may make such
14 disclosure of reports or records as may be necessary to enforce
15 section 5(b) of this act.
16 Section 4. This act shall take effect in 60 days.
B10L35WMB/19990S0613B0647 - 5 -