FINAL BILL REPORT

                 SHB 1371

                         C 172 L 99

                     Synopsis as Enacted

Brief Description:  Modifying provisions that concern the control and prevention of tuberculosis.

Sponsors:  By House Committee on Health Care (Originally sponsored by Representatives Ruderman, Alexander and O'Brien; by request of Department of Health).

House Committee on Health Care

Senate Committee on Health & Long-Term Care

Background:

According to the Department of Health's (DOH) Annual Communicable Disease Report for 1997, tuberculosis (TB) has reemerged as a serious communicable disease, after years of decline.  The numbers of cases reported annually in Washington declined from 713 in 1960 to 207 in 1984.  Between 1984 and 1991, that number increased from 207 to 309, a nearly 50 percent increase.  Cases reported declined from 1991 through 1996.  However, in 1997, the number of cases again increased.  There were 305 reported cases 1997, an increase from the 285 cases reported in 1996.

The DOH and local health departments are responsible for protecting the public from the spread of TB.  The laws, spread over four chapters of the state code, date back to 1899.  Those laws authorize public health authorities to report and track cases of TB, investigate suspected cases and conduct examinations, and order treatment, isolation or quarantine.  The current laws are crucial to the task of detecting and controlling the spread of TB.  However, those laws also contain outdated language that does not reflect current practices.

Summary:

Numerous sections of law are revised and consolidated while preserving the basic components for TB control and treatment.

Votes on Final Passage:

House960

Senate450(Senate amended)

House970(House concurred)

Effective:July 25, 1999