FIRST REGULAR SESSION
HOUSE BILL NO. 478
91ST GENERAL ASSEMBLY
INTRODUCED BY REPRESENTATIVES HOSMER AND HENDRICKSON (Co-sponsors).
Read 1st time January 23, 2001, and 1000 copies ordered printed.
TED WEDEL, Chief Clerk
AN ACT
To repeal sections 199.170, 199.180 and 199.200, RSMo 2000, relating to tuberculosis, and to enact in lieu thereof three new sections relating to the same subject.
Section A. Sections 199.170, 199.180 and 199.200, RSMo 2000, are repealed and three new sections enacted in lieu thereof, to be known as sections 199.170, 199.180 and 199.200, to read as follows:
199.170. The following terms, as used in sections 199.170 to 199.270, mean:
(1) "Active tuberculosis", tuberculosis disease that is demonstrated to be contagious by clinical, bacteriological, or radiological evidence. Tuberculosis is considered active until cured;
(2) "Cure" or "treatment to cure", the completion of a recommended course of therapy as defined in subdivision (5) of this section and as determined by the attending physician;
(3) "Local board", any legally constituted local city or county board of health or health center board of trustees or the director of health of the city of Kansas City, the director of the Springfield-Greene County health department, the director of health of St. Louis County or the commissioner of health of the city of St. Louis, or in the absence of such board, the county commission or the county board of tuberculosis hospital commissioners of any county;
(4) "Potential transmitter", any person who has the diagnosis of pulmonary tuberculosis but has not begun a recommended course of therapy, or who has the diagnosis of pulmonary tuberculosis and has started a recommended course of therapy but has not completed the therapy. This status applies to any individual with tuberculosis, regardless of his or her current bacteriologic status;
(5) "Recommended course of therapy", a regimen of antituberculosis chemotherapy in accordance with medical standards of the American Thoracic Society and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
199.180. 1. A person found to have tuberculosis shall follow the instructions of the local board, shall obtain the required treatment, and shall minimize the risk of infecting others with tuberculosis.
2. When a person with active tuberculosis, or a person who is a potential transmitter, violates the rules, regulations, instructions, or orders promulgated by the department of health or the local board, and is thereby conducting himself or herself so as to expose other persons to danger of infection, after having been directed by the local board to comply with such rules, regulations, instructions, or orders, the local board may institute proceedings by petition for commitment, returnable to the circuit court of the county in which such person resides, or if the person be a nonresident or has no fixed place of abode, then in the county in which the person is found. Strictness of pleading shall not be required and a general allegation that the public health requires commitment of the person named therein shall be sufficient.
3. If the board determines that a person with active tuberculosis, or a person who is a potential transmitter, poses an immediate threat by conducting himself or herself so as to expose other persons to an immediate danger of infection, the board may file an ex parte petition for emergency temporary commitment pursuant to subsection 5 of section 199.200.
199.200. 1. Upon filing of the petition, the court shall set the matter down for a hearing either during term time or in vacation, which time shall be not less than five days nor more than fifteen days subsequent to filing. A copy of the petition together with summons stating the time and place of hearing shall be served upon the person three days or more prior to the time set for the hearing. Any X-ray picture and report of any written report relating to sputum examinations certified by the department of health or local board shall be admissible in evidence without the necessity of the personal testimony of the person or persons making the examination and report.
2. The prosecuting attorney or the city attorney shall act as legal counsel for their respective local boards in this proceeding and such authority is hereby granted. The court shall appoint legal counsel for the individual named in the petition if requested to do so if such individual is unable to employ counsel.
3. All court costs incurred in proceedings under sections 199.170 to 199.270, including examinations required by order of the court but excluding examinations procured by the person named in the petition, shall be borne by the county in which the proceedings are brought.
4. Summons shall be served by the sheriff of the county in which proceedings under sections 199.170 to 199.270 are initiated and return thereof shall be made as in other civil cases.
5. Upon the filing of an ex parte petition for emergency temporary commitment pursuant to subsection 3 of
section 199.180, the court shall hear the matter within ninety-six hours of such filing. The local board shall
have the authority to detain the individual named in the petition pending the court's ruling on the ex parte
petition for emergency temporary commitment. If the petition is granted, the individual named in the
petition shall be confined in a facility designated by the curators of the University of Missouri in
accordance with section 199.230 until a full hearing pursuant to subsections 1 to 4 of this section is
held.
Missouri House
of Representatives