Click here for more information about this April 28, 2009 briefing.
CDC’s Public Health Law Program developed this, foundational course on public
health law as a learning resource for public health practitioners, students, and
others.
Click on this banner for more information and archives
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Legal Tools for Tuberculosis Control
Tuberculosis (TB) is an airborne, communicable disease caused by Mycobacterium
tuberculosis. Approximately 2 billion people globally are infected with
M. tuberculosis, and about 13,000 people develop TB disease domestically
each year. Law-based interventions to control TB, in use for more than
a century, remain highly relevant today. The Centers for Disease Control
and Prevention, in cooperation with its partners, produced and/or facilitated
the production of several law-related resources for use by states, localities,
and Tribes to prevent and control the spread of TB.
CDC Scenario-Based Assessment: Understanding and Sufficiency of States’
TB Control Laws
A hypothetical scenario that TB professionals in state agencies and other
settings may use to explore their understanding of, and to identify potential
limitations of or gaps in:
- The viability and sufficiency of jurisdiction-specific legal authorities
for limiting or preventing the transmission of TB through fundamental
steps, including: screening and identification of cases; contact investigation;
investigation of known or suspect cases; reporting of cases; treatment
(including directly-observed treatment); the use of specific containment
measures (e.g., isolation, quarantine, and other restrictions); and
measures for ensuring the legal protections of persons with cases of
TB, such as procedural due process, health information privacy, anti-discrimination,
respect for religious beliefs, and other individual safeguards and protections.
- Legal authorities, requirements and options for coordination of
multi-jurisdictional (intrastate, interstate, and international) TB
case management, including screening for infectiousness before travel
or movement outside of the original jurisdiction, managing risk of infection
during travel, and ensuring continuity and completion of treatment (and
coverage of associated costs) before and after travel.
- Legal authorities for coordination of control efforts (e.g., identification,
reporting, contact investigation, and treatment of TB cases), across
key sectors, including public health, health care providers, and public
safety / law enforcement, and in various settings (e.g., schools, correctional
facilities, nursing homes, mental health facilities, and homeless shelters).
- Legal authorities in relation to the infectiousness of smear-negative
/ culture-positive patients.
- Legal authorities for supporting treatment with static antimicrobial
options in the face of progressive increases in drug resistance.
- Laws addressing the financial costs associated with treatment of
adherent individuals and with detention and treatment of non-adherent
individuals, and the housing (voluntarily or involuntarily) and treatment
of a person with a case of infectious TB in a treatment facility in
a state other than that of the person’s legal domicile.
TB Scenario Master
(Posted: 09/8/2009)
TB Scenario Presentation
This PowerPoint presentation is stored as a pdf
(Posted: 09/8/2009)
User's
Manual
(Posted: 09/8/2009)
Express Tuberculosis Control Laws in Selected U.S. Jurisdictions
Oscar A. Cabrera,O’Neill, James G. Hodge, Jr. and Lawrence O. Gostin, JD,
LL.D. (Hon.), The Centers for Law & the Public’s Health: A Collaborative
at Johns Hopkins and Georgetown Universities,
Express Tuberculosis Control Laws in Selected U.S. Jurisdictions
(10/1/2008).
An examination of key legal patterns of express TB control laws present
in 25 states.
(Posted: 09/8/2009).
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