(A) The General Assembly finds that:

(1) Pulmonary tuberculosis is a life-threatening airborne disease. Tuberculosis has reemerged as an epidemic disease nationally. The number and types of cases in South Carolina each year, including drug-resistant tuberculosis, demonstrate that timely, effective public health intervention is necessary to prevent an epidemic and to protect the residents of this State.

(2) In order to limit the spread of tuberculosis, it is essential that persons with the disease are diagnosed and treated before they infect others. Diagnosis requires a variety of methodologies, including skin tests, x-rays, blood tests, and laboratory analysis of sputum samples.

(3) A person with tuberculosis who does not voluntarily submit to appropriate testing, treatment, or infection control methods poses an unreasonable risk of spreading the disease to those who come into contact with the person.

(4) Although the recommended course of treatment for tuberculosis varies somewhat from one individual to another, at a minimum, effective treatment requires a long-term regimen of multiple drug therapy. The development of the appropriate course of treatment for any one individual may require trying different combinations of drugs and repeated drug susceptibility testing. The course of treatment may require as long as several years to complete.

(5) A noninfectious person who begins a course of treatment for tuberculosis and fails to follow the recommended course through to completion is highly likely to become infectious. The person can infect others and possibly develop drug-resistant tuberculosis, which is more difficult to treat, and more likely to result in death. A person who is infectious with multi-drug resistant tuberculosis poses a significant risk of transmitting drug-resistant tuberculosis to other persons, unless appropriate treatment and infection control methods are followed. It is therefore critical that individuals with tuberculosis, whether infectious or not, complete a course of treatment to avoid relapse, infectiousness, and drug resistance.

(B) The purposes of this article are to:

(1) assure the timely diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of tuberculosis;

(2) provide appropriate individualized preventive and curative treatment to the people of South Carolina in the least restrictive setting; and

(3) protect the public from the spread of infectious tuberculosis.

HISTORY: 2011 Act No. 53, Section 1, eff June 14, 2011.