PDFWAC 246-100-036

Responsibilities and duties—Local health officers.

(1) The local health officer shall establish, in consultation with local health care providers, health facilities, emergency management personnel, law enforcement agencies, and any other entity they deem necessary, plans, policies, and procedures for instituting emergency measures necessary to prevent the spread of communicable disease or contamination.
(2) Local health officers shall:
(a) Notify health care providers within the local health jurisdiction regarding requirements in this chapter;
(b) Ensure anonymous HIV testing is reasonably available;
(c) Make HIV testing, as defined in this chapter, available for voluntary, mandatory, and anonymous testing;
(d) Make information on anonymous HIV testing available;
(e) Use identifying information on persons diagnosed with HIV provided according to chapter 246-101 WAC only:
(i) For purposes of contacting the person diagnosed with HIV to provide test results; or
(ii) To contact persons who may have experienced exposure, including persons identified as sex or injection equipment-sharing partners and spouses; or
(iii) To link with other name-based public health disease registries when doing so will improve ability to provide needed social and health care services and disease prevention, if the identity or identifying information of the persons living with HIV is not disclosed outside of the local health jurisdiction.
(3) Local health officers shall, when necessary, conduct investigations and institute disease control and contamination control measures, including medical examination, testing, counseling, treatment, vaccination, decontamination of persons or animals, isolation, quarantine, vector control, condemnation of food supplies, and inspection and closure of facilities, consistent with those indicated in the Control of Communicable Diseases Manual, 20th edition, published by the American Public Health Association, or other measures they deem necessary based on their professional judgment, current standards of practice, and the best available medical and scientific information.
(4) A local health jurisdiction should seek agreements as necessary with tribal governments and with federal authorities, with state agencies, and institutions of higher education that empower the local health officer to conduct investigations and institute control measures in accordance with WAC 246-100-040 on tribal lands, federal enclaves and military bases, and the campuses of state institutions. State institutions include, but are not limited to, state-operated: Colleges and universities, schools, hospitals, prisons, group homes, juvenile rehabilitation facilities, and residential habilitation centers.
[Statutory Authority: RCW 43.20.050 and 70.24.130. WSR 22-06-061, § 246-100-036, filed 2/25/22, effective 3/28/22. Statutory Authority: RCW 43.20.050. WSR 15-05-014, § 246-100-036, filed 2/6/15, effective 3/9/15; WSR 03-17-022, § 246-100-036, filed 8/13/03, effective 9/13/03. Statutory Authority: RCW 43.20.050 (2)(d), 70.05.050, and 70.05.060. WSR 03-05-048, § 246-100-036, filed 2/13/03, effective 2/13/03. Statutory Authority: RCW 43.20.050. WSR 00-23-120, § 246-100-036, filed 11/22/00, effective 12/23/00. Statutory Authority: RCW 70.24.125 and 70.24.130. WSR 99-17-077, § 246-100-036, filed 8/13/99, effective 9/1/99. Statutory Authority: RCW 70.24.022, [70.24].340 and Public Law 104-146. WSR 97-15-099, § 246-100-036, filed 7/21/97, effective 7/21/97. Statutory Authority: RCW 43.20.050 and 70.24.130. WSR 92-02-019 (Order 225B), § 246-100-036, filed 12/23/91, effective 1/23/92. Statutory Authority: RCW 43.20.050. WSR 91-02-051 (Order 124B), recodified as § 246-100-036, filed 12/27/90, effective 1/31/91. Statutory Authority: Chapter 70.24 RCW. WSR 89-02-008 (Order 324), § 248-100-036, filed 12/27/88. Statutory Authority: RCW 43.20.050. WSR 88-07-063 (Order 308), § 248-100-036, filed 3/16/88.]