Virginia Law

The board and commissioner shall use appropriate disease control measures to manage the diseases listed in 12VAC5-90-80 A, including but not limited to those described in the "Methods of Control" sections of the 20th Edition of the Control of Communicable Diseases Manual (2015) published by the American Public Health Association. The board and commissioner reserve the right to use any legal means to control any disease which is a threat to the public health.

When notified about a disease specified in 12VAC5-90-80, the local health director or his designee shall have the authority and responsibility to perform contact tracing/contact services for HIV infection, infectious syphilis, and active tuberculosis disease and may perform contact services for the other diseases if deemed necessary to protect the public health. All contacts of HIV infection shall be afforded the opportunity for appropriate counseling, testing, and individual face-to-face disclosure of their test results. In no case shall names of informants or infected individuals be revealed to contacts by the health department. All information obtained shall be kept strictly confidential.

The local health director or his designee shall review reports of diseases received from his jurisdiction and follow up such reports, when indicated, with an appropriate investigation in order to evaluate the severity of the problem. The local health director or his designee may recommend to any individual or group of individuals appropriate public health control measures, including but not limited to quarantine, isolation, immunization, decontamination, or treatment. He shall determine in consultation with the Office of Epidemiology and the commissioner if further investigation is required and if one or more forms of quarantine, isolation, or both will be necessary.

Complete isolation shall apply to situations where an individual is infected with a communicable disease of public health significance (including but not limited to active tuberculosis disease or HIV infection) and is engaging in behavior that places others at risk for infection with the communicable disease of public health significance, in accordance with the provisions of Article 3.01 (§ 32.1-48.01 et seq.) of Chapter 2 of Title 32.1 of the Code of Virginia.

Modified isolation shall apply to situations in which the local health director determines that modifications of activity are necessary to prevent disease transmission. Such situations shall include but are not limited to the temporary exclusion of a child with a communicable disease from school, the temporary exclusion of an individual with a communicable disease from food handling or patient care, the temporary prohibition or restriction of an individual with a communicable disease from using public transportation, the requirement that a person with a communicable disease use certain personal protective equipment, or restrictions of other activities that may pose a risk to the health of others.

Protective isolation shall apply to situations such as the exclusion, under § 32.1-47 of the Code of Virginia, of any unimmunized child from a school in which an outbreak, potential epidemic, or epidemic of a vaccine preventable disease has been identified.

To the extent permitted by the Code of Virginia, the local health director may be authorized as the commissioner's designee to implement the forms of isolation described in this section. When these forms of isolation are deemed to be insufficient, the local health director may use the provisions of Article 3.01 (§ 32.1-48.01 et seq.) of Chapter 2 of Title 32.1 of the Code of Virginia for the control of communicable diseases of public health significance or, in consultation with the Office of Epidemiology, shall provide sufficient information to enable the commissioner to prepare an order or orders of isolation, quarantine, or both under Article 3.02 (§ 32.1-48.05 et seq.) of Chapter 2 of Title 32.1 of the Code of Virginia for the control of communicable diseases of public health threat.