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1995 SESSION

LD7588321
HOUSE BILL NO. 2529
Offered January 23, 1995
A BILL to amend and reenact § 32.1-36 of the Code of Virginia, and to amend the Code of Virginia by adding a section numbered 32.1-11.01, relating to reports by physicians and registry .
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Patrons--Kidd, Crouch, Kilgore, Ruff and Tata
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Referred to Committee on Health, Welfare and Institutions
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Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Virginia:

1. That § 32.1-36 of the Code of Virginia is amended and reenacted as follows:

§ 32.1-36. Reports by physicians and laboratory directors.

A. Every physician practicing in this Commonwealth who shall diagnose or reasonably suspect that any patient of his has any disease required by the Board to be reported and every director of any laboratory doing business in this Commonwealth which performs any test whose results indicate the presence of any such disease shall make a report within such time and in such manner as may be prescribed by regulations of the Board.

B. Any physician who diagnoses a venereal disease in a child twelve years of age or under shall, in addition to the requirements of subsection A hereof, report the matter, in accordance with the provisions of § 63.1-248.3, unless the physician reasonably believes that the infection was acquired congenitally or by a means other than sexual abuse.

C. Any physician practicing in this Commonwealth shall report to the local health department the identity of any patient of his who has tested positive for exposure to human immunodeficiency virus as demonstrated by such test or tests as are approved by the Board for this purpose. However, there is no duty on the part of the physician to notify any third party other than the local health department of such test result, and a cause of action shall not arise from any failure to notify any other third party.

D. Any physician practicing in this Commonwealth who diagnoses a contagious disease in any patient of his shall report to the State Board of Health, the identity of such patient, and shall disclose to the employer of such patient the diagnosis of a contagious disease, if the physician knows that the patient is employed in a capacity in which contact with the public is required and such contact would endanger the public health. The physician shall make such report within such time and in such manner as may be prescribed by regulations of the Board.

§ 32.1-11:01. Registry of persons with contagious diseases.

With such funds as may be appropriated for this purpose, the Board of Health shall establish and maintain a registry of persons who have been reported by a physician as having been diagnosed with a contagious disease. The Board shall authorize the disclosure of such information to any person who shall document, in such manner as may be prescribed by the Board regulations that the individual about whom he is requesting such information is currently in his employ.