§18. Communicable disease; isolation and report to state health officer; quarantine

A. If any case where a communicable disease is reported to or comes to the knowledge of any local health officer, the local health officer shall immediately isolate it and communicate the fact as expeditiously as practicable to the state health officer, together with the information as to what steps have been taken to isolate and care for the case. The local health officer shall, from time to time, communicate the progress of the case to the state health officer.

B. Upon receipt of notice of the case by the state health officer, or at any time during the case thereafter, the state health officer shall, if he thinks the emergency sufficient, send an expert physician, selected by him, to examine and diagnose the disease. If, after this examination and diagnosis, the expert declares the case to be one of an obnoxious or communicable nature, liable to spread or to become dangerous to the general public health of the state, the state health officer shall instruct the local health officer as to what additional steps, if any, should be taken to isolate the case and prevent the spread of the infection any further. The state health officer shall require that the local health officer immediately conform to and put these instructions in operation. If the local health officer or other local authorities connected with the case fail to act immediately on these instructions or fail to act in the case in a manner satisfactory to the state health officer, the state health officer shall take charge of the case and manage it through his own officers or employees.

Acts 1976, No. 346, §1; Acts 2018, No. 206, §4.