NORTH CAROLINA GENERAL ASSEMBLY

1979 SESSION

 

 

CHAPTER 192

SENATE BILL 366

 

 

AN ACT TO AMEND ARTICLE 8 OF CHAPTER 130 OF THE GENERAL STATUTES PERTAINING TO THE REPORTING OF INFECTIOUS DISEASES.

 

The General Assembly of North Carolina enacts:

 

Section 1.  G.S. 130-80 is hereby rewritten to read as follows:

"§ 130-80.  Local health director has quarantine and isolation authority. — (a) The local health director is empowered to exercise quarantine authority and isolation authority within his jurisdiction.

(b)        'Quarantine authority' means the authority to limit the freedom of movement of persons or animals, which have been exposed or are reasonably suspected of having been exposed to a communicable disease, for a period of time as may be necessary to prevent the spread of that disease. The term also means the authority to limit the freedom of movement of persons who have not received immunizations against a communicable disease listed in G.S. 130-87 when the local health director determines that such immunizations are required to control an outbreak or threatened outbreak of that disease.

(c)        'Isolation authority' means the authority to separate for the period of communicability infected persons from other persons, in such places and under such conditions as will prevent the direct or indirect conveyance of the infectious agent from infected persons to other persons who are susceptible or who may spread the agent to others.

(d)        'Communicable disease' means an illness due to an infectious agent or its toxic products which is transmitted directly or indirectly to a well person from an infected person or animal, through the agency of an intermediate animal, host or vector or through the inanimate environment.

(e)        'Outbreak' means an occurrence of a case or cases of a disease in a locale in excess of the usual number of cases of the disease."

Sec. 2.  Article 8 of Chapter 130 of the General Statutes is hereby amended by adding a new section to read as follows:

"§ 130-82.1.  School principals and day-care operators to report. — Every principal of a school and operator of a day-care facility, as defined in G.S. 110-86(3), shall notify the local health director of the name and address of any person within his school or day-care facility whom he or his staff has reason to suspect of being afflicted with a disease declared by the Commission for Health Services to be reportable."

Sec. 3.  G.S. 130-83 is hereby amended: (i) by substituting the numbers "G.S. 130‑81, G.S. 130-82 or G.S. 130-82.1" for the numbers "G.S. 130-81 or G.S. 130-82"; (ii) by designating the existing section as subsection (a); and (iii) by adding a new subsection to read as follows:

"(b)      The reports in the possession of the local health director or Secretary of Human Resources which contain the names and addresses of persons afflicted or believed or suspected of being afflicted with a disease declared to be reportable shall not be public records as defined in G.S. 132-1."

Sec. 4.  This act is effective upon ratification.

In the General Assembly read three times and ratified, this the 23rd day of March, 1979.