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 the National Tuberculosis Controllers Association and other partners, has developed and facilitated development of a portfolio of law-related resources for use by states, localities, and Tribes to prevent and control the spread of TB. These resources can be accessed and downloaded from this page for immediate use.

Menu of Suggested Provisions for State Tuberculosis Prevention and Control Laws

The Menu is intended to serve as a practical resource for public health officials and their legal counsel in their efforts to eliminate TB. The Menu features a set of alternative provisions within each section for consideration by public health officials and their legal counsel in the enactment, promulgation, amendment, or implementation of laws to prevent and control TB. The provisions in the Menu are intended to serve as a starting point – the suggested provisions must be considered within the policy and legal frameworks of the jurisdiction contemplating their adoption.
Menu of Suggested Provisions for State Tuberculosis Prevention and Control Laws
(Posted 10/18/2010)

Tuberculosis Control Laws and Policies: A Handbook for Public Health and Legal Practitioners

The purpose of this Handbook is to provide a practical source of information on laws related to TB control to help public health practitioners and their legal counsel to: (1) understand the legal environment for the control of communicable diseases, including TB; (2) identify and explain legal issues in TB control; and (3) consider the use of tools for improving TB control.
Tuberculosis Control Laws and Policies: A Handbook for Public Health and Legal Practitioners
(Posted: 3/25/2010)

CDC Scenario-Based Assessment: Understanding and Sufficiency of States’ TB Control Laws

• 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.

Express Tuberculosis Control Laws in Selected U.S. Jurisdictions