(A) The Board of Health and Environmental Control or its designated agents must investigate the reported causes of communicable or epidemic disease and must enforce or prescribe these preventive measures as may be needed to suppress or prevent the spread of these diseases by proper quarantine or other measures of prevention, as may be necessary to protect the citizens of the State. The Board of Health and Environmental Control or its designated agents shall declare, when the facts justify it, any place as infected and, in case of hydrophobia or other diseases transmitted from animals to man, must declare such animal or animals quarantined, and must place all such restrictions upon ingress and egress of persons or animals therefrom as may be, in its judgment, necessary to prevent the spread of disease from the infected locality.

(B)(1) Whenever the board learns of a case of a reportable illness or health condition, an unusual cluster, or a suspicious event that it reasonably believes has the potential to cause a public health emergency, as defined in Section 44-4-130, it is authorized to notify the appropriate public safety authority, tribal authorities, and federal health and public safety authorities.

(2) The sharing of information on reportable illnesses, health conditions, unusual clusters, or suspicious events between authorized personnel must be restricted to information necessary for the treatment, control, investigation, and prevention of a public health emergency. Restriction of access to this information to those authorized personnel for the protection of public health ensures compliance with all state and federal health information privacy laws.

(3) The board and its agents must have full access to medical records and nonmedical records when necessary to investigate the causes, character, and means of preventing the spread of a qualifying health event or public health emergency. For purposes of this item, "nonmedical records" mean records of entities, including businesses, health facilities, and pharmacies, which are needed to adequately identify and locate persons believed to have been potentially exposed or known to have been infected with a contagious disease.

(4) An order of the board given to effectuate the purposes of this subsection is enforceable immediately by the public safety authority.

(5) For purposes of this subsection, the terms qualifying health event, public health emergency, and public safety authority have the same meanings as provided in Section 44-4-130.

HISTORY: 1962 Code Section 32-36; 1952 Code Section 32-36; 1942 Code Section 5011; 1932 Code Section 5054; Civ. C. '22 Section 2362; Civ. C. '12 Section 1614; 1908 (25) 998; 2002 Act No. 339, Section 22, eff July 2, 2002.