Tennessee § 68-10-104 - Officers to examine suspected persons and require treatment — Sources of infection to be investigated.

§ 68-10-104. Officers to examine suspected persons and require treatment — Sources of infection to be investigated.

State, district, county and municipal health officers or their authorized deputies, within their respective jurisdictions, are directed and empowered, when, in their judgment, it is necessary to protect the public health, to make an examination of a person reasonably suspected because of known clinical or epidemiological evidence of being infected with a STD of a communicable nature, and to require such person when found infected to report for treatment to a reputable physician or clinic, and continue treatment until discharged by the physician or clinic as noninfectious, or in a stage of the disease in which an infectious relapse will not occur, or to submit to treatment provided at public expense until discharged as noninfectious, or in a stage of the disease in which an infectious relapse will not occur; and also, when in the judgment of the state, municipal or county health officer, it is necessary to protect the public health, to isolate and quarantine the person infected with a STD; provided, that any person so suspected may have present at the time of examination a physician of the person's own choosing to participate in the examination. Loitering about or residing in a house of assignation or prostitution or any other place where lewdness is practiced shall be construed as sufficient to suspect a person of being infected with a STD. It is the duty of all health officers to investigate sources of infection of STDs and to cooperate with the proper officers whose duty it is to enforce laws directed against prostitution, lewdness and assignation and the spread of STDs. The following healthcare officers and providers licensed in this state may examine, diagnose, and treat minors infected with STDs without the knowledge or consent of the parents of the minors, and shall incur no civil or criminal liability in connection with the examination, diagnosis, or treatment, except for negligence: Any state, district, county, or municipal health officer; or Any physician, nurse practitioner with a certificate of fitness and an appropriate supervising physician, nurse midwife who is an advanced practice registered nurse under § 63-7-126 and who has an appropriate supervising physician, or physician assistant with an appropriate supervising physician. Acts 1921, ch. 106, § 4; Shan. Supp., § 3116a11; Code 1932, § 5816; Acts 1943, ch. 73, § 3; C. Supp. 1950, § 5816; Acts 1969, ch. 39, § 1; T.C.A. (orig. ed.), § 53-1104; Acts 2017, ch. 266, § 1. Amendments. The 2017 amendment, in the present introductory language of (c), substituted “The following healthcare officers and providers licensed in this state” for “Any state, district, county or municipal health officer or physician” at the beginning, and inserted commas following “diagnose” and “diagnosis”; and added (c)(1) and (c)(2). Effective Dates. Acts 2017, ch. 266, § 2. July 1, 2017. Textbooks. Tennessee Jurisprudence, 14 Tenn. Juris., Health, § 1. Cited: State v. Fears, 659 S.W.2d 370, 1983 Tenn. Crim. App. LEXIS 413 (Tenn. Crim. App. 1983).