2013 South Carolina Code of Laws
Title 44 - Health
CHAPTER 31 - TUBERCULOSIS
SECTION 44-31-105. Emergency order; contents; enforcement; hearings on release.

(A) If the Department of Health and Environmental Control determines that the public health or the health of any individual is endangered by a case of tuberculosis, or a suspected case of tuberculosis, the commissioner, or his or her designee, may issue an emergency order he or she considers necessary to protect the public health or the health of any person, and law enforcement shall aid and assist the department in accordance with Section 44-1-100.

(B) An emergency order issued pursuant to this section may include, but is not limited to:

(1) authorizing the emergency removal to and detention in a hospital or other treatment facility for examination of a person who is unable or unwilling to voluntarily submit to an examination by a physician or by the department for the purpose of determining whether the person is infected with active tuberculosis and presents a danger to himself or others;

(2) requiring compliance with an appropriate, prescribed course of medication for tuberculosis and contagion precautions;

(3) requiring compliance with a course of directly observed therapy in which the prescribed antituberculosis medication is administered under direct observation as specified by the department;

(4) authorizing the emergency removal to and isolation in a hospital or other treatment facility of a person who fails to comply with an emergency order issued by the department, fails to comply with a medically ordered treatment regimen, and presents a substantial risk and likelihood of exposure of active tuberculosis to other persons;

(5) requiring the emergency detention and isolation by a hospital of a hospital patient with active tuberculosis disease who is threatening or attempting to leave the hospital against medical advice.

(C) An emergency order issued pursuant to this section must include:

(1) an individualized assessment of the person's circumstances or behavior, or both, constituting the basis for the issuance of the order;

(2) the purposes of the isolation or detention;

(3) notice that the respondent has the right to request release from isolation and detention by contacting a person designated in the order; and

(4) in the absence of a court order, that the detention must not continue for more than thirty days.

(D) The probate court shall enforce the provisions of an emergency order issued pursuant to this section. If a person being isolated or detained pursuant to an emergency order requests release from isolation or detention, the department, within three working days of the request for release, shall file a petition in the probate court of the county in which the person is being held seeking continued isolation or detention. The probate court must schedule a hearing to review the request for continued isolation or detention within ten days of the filing of the petition.

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