Substituted for: House Bill No. 1765

AN ACT To amend Tennessee Code Annotated, Title 41, Chapter 51, relative to inmates with infectious diseases.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF TENNESSEE:

SECTION 1. Tennessee Code Annotated, Title 41, Chapter 51, is amended by adding a new section thereto, as follows:

Section __. (a) Whenever any inmate committed to a state penal institution dies, and such inmate is known by health personnel of the department of correction to be infected by a bloodborne pathogen as defined in § 41-51-102(b)(1), the superintendent, director or warden of such state penal institution shall inform the person collecting the dead body and the funeral home to which the dead body is carried of such infectivity. Such notice of infectivity shall be given before the dead body is removed from the state penal institution or the health care facility in which the inmate died.

(b) This section does not authorize the release of confidential information to members of the public in violation of 10-7-504. For the purposes of this section, any person informed of the results of any inmate's test for infectious diseases shall treat the information received as confidential.

SECTION 2. This act shall take effect July 1, 1997, the public welfare requiring it.