OAG 53-24.

• Case Date: March 06, 1953
• Court: Oregon

Oregon Attorney General Opinions 1953. OAG 53-24. 78OPINION NO. 53-24[26 Or. Op. Atty. Gen. 78]State board of health has authority to remove a diseased person and order confinement in the state tuberculosis79 hospital when such action is necessary to prevent further spreading of the disease at least in the absence of adequate home, city, county or other local quarantine facilities.The state tuberculosis hospital may isolate a patient but may not imprison a patient for violation of hospital regulations. No. 2370March 6, 1953Oregon State Board of ControlThis is to acknowledge receipt of your letter of February 16, 1953, in which you present two questions relating to the authority of the state board of health and the tuberculosis hospital in the handling of recalcitrant tuberculosis cases. You state that individual "A" is found to have tuberculosis but will not enter a private sanitarium or the state hospital in order to be properly isolated and treated. You ask my opinion as to whether or not "* * * the State Health Officer has the necessary authority to isolate individual 'A' in a State Tuberculosis hospital and to call on peace officers, if necessary, to effect this isolation and whether the Superintendent likewise has authority to contain individual 'A' in a 'strong Room' in order to assure that he will remain isolated from the general public and undergo treatment. * * *" The state board of health has direct supervision of all matters relating to the preservation of life and health of the people of the state and has full power in the control of communicable diseases. Pursuant thereto the board has power to make and enforce rules and regulations for the control of all communicable diseases, by quarantine. Section 99-103, O.C.L.A. Section 99-602, O.C.L.A., provides: "The state board of health shall, upon receiving a report that any person is suffering from tuberculosis, make such investigation of the case as is necessary to determine whether or not the person reported is suffering from communicable tuberculosis. Upon finding that any person is suffering from communicable tuberculosis it shall be the duty, and the state board of health hereby is authorized to exercise such control over the person so afflicted and his contacts with other persons as may be necessary for the protection of the public health, pursuant to its rules and...