                                 CODE OF VIRGINIA

TREATMENT PLAN; SUBMISSION OF PLAN AND MEDIATION OF DISAGREEMENTS; DETERMINATION
OF CURE (§ 32.1-50.1)

A. Each physician practicing in the Commonwealth who assumes responsibility for
the treatment of a person for active tuberculosis as defined in this article and
each person in charge of a medical care facility providing inpatient or
outpatient treatment to a person with active tuberculosis shall, with the
assistance and acknowledgement of that person, develop, maintain, and update as
indicated, an individualized written plan of treatment tailored to the
person&#8217;s medical and personal needs and identifying the method for
effective treatment and prevention of transmission. At a minimum, the plan shall
specifically include verified patient address, name of the medical provider who
has assumed responsibility for treatment, planned course of anti-tuberculosis
drug therapy, estimated date of treatment completion, and means of ensuring
successful completion of that treatment.

B. The written treatment plan shall upon request be submitted by the medical
provider to the local health director in a manner determined by the Board and
shall be subject to approval of the local health director. The Commissioner
shall have the authority to settle, based on statewide standards, disagreements
between the written plan so submitted and standards of care established by the
local health director.

C. Each treating physician of or person in charge of a medical facility
providing outpatient or inpatient care to a person with active tuberculosis
disease shall maintain and submit to the local health director, upon his
request, written documentation of that person&#8217;s adherence to the treatment
plan.

D. Each person in charge of a medical care facility providing inpatient
treatment to a person with active tuberculosis disease and each person in charge
of a state correctional or local correctional or detention facility that has in
its custody a person with active tuberculosis shall submit to the local health
director, in the manner determined by the Board, the plan of treatment for such
person as required in this article. The person in charge shall encourage the
person to comply with such treatment plan; however, if such person with active
tuberculosis indicates an unwillingness to comply with the treatment plan upon
release, or exhibits behavior that indicates noncompliance, the person in
charge, in conjunction with the local health director, may request the
Commissioner to issue an emergency order requiring such person to be taken into
custody pursuant to &#xA7; 32.1-48.02 or other detention or custody options
available pursuant to &#xA7; 32.1-48.03 or &#xA7; 32.1-48.04.

E. Once established in a person, active tuberculosis disease shall be considered
present until (i) the person has received a complete and adequate course of
antituberculosis drug therapy as established by the Commissioner in accordance
with guidelines developed by the American Thoracic Society and Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention and (ii) three successive cultures of specimens
of sputum or other bodily fluid or tissue collected at intervals of no less than
one week, or other definitive diagnostic test as established by the Commissioner
demonstrate no viable tubercle bacilli, or the Commissioner or his designee
determines that the clinical, laboratory, or radiographic evidence leads to a
diagnosis other than active tuberculosis disease.

HISTORY: 2001, c. 459.