Chap. 364.—An ACT to provide for the control and prevention of venereal dis-
eases; to provide for the reporting by physicians and other persons of said
diseases; to provide for the apprehension, treatment, and detention of pro-
miscuous carriers; to provide for the protection of other persons from
infection by venereally diseased persons; to provide the penalty for the
violation of this act, and to provide for the maintenance of persons con-
victed hereunder. [H B 324]

Approved March 20, 1920.

1. Be it enacted by the general assembly of Virginia, That
syphilis, gonorrhea and chancroid, hereinafter designated venereal dis-
eases, are hereby declared to be contagious, infectious, communicable,
and dangerous to the public health.

2. Any physician or other person who makes a diagnosis in or
treats, a case of syphilis, gonorrhea or chancroid, and every superin-
tendent or manager of a hospital, dispensary, or charitable or penal
institution, in which there is a case of venereal disease, shall report
such case immediately in writing to the State board of health, stating
the name and address, or the office number, age, sex, color and occu-
pation of the diseased person, the date of onset of the disease, and
probable source of the infection, provided that the name and address
of diseased person need not be stated, unless an inmate of a penal
institution, except in those cases in which the attending physician
knows or has good reason to suspect that a person having a venereal
disease 1s conducting himself, or herself, in such a manner as to
expose any other person to infection, when he shall notify the State
board of health and the local health officer of the name and address
of the diseased person and the essential facts in the case. The report
shall be enclosed in a sealed envelope and sent to the State board of
health, as above provided.

3. It shall be the duty of every physician and of every person who
examines or treats a person having syphilis, gonorrhea or chancroid,
to instruct him in measures for preventing the spread of such dis-
eases, and to inform him of the necessity for treatment until cured
and to hand him a copy of the circular of information and a copy of
this act, both of which are obtainable for this purpose from the
State board of health.

4. (a) All State, city, county and other health officers shall use
every available means to ascertain the existence of, and to investigate
all cases of syphilis, gonorrhea, or chancroidg within their several
territorial jurisdictions, and to ascertain the sources of such infections.
All health officers are hereby empowered and directed to make such
examinations of persons reasonably suspected of having syphilis,
gonorrhea, or chancroid as may be necessary for the carrying out
of this act.

(b) Owing to the prevalence of such diseases amongst vagrants,
prostitutes, keepers, inmates, employees, and frequenters of houses
of ill-fame, prostitution, and assignation, persons “not of good fame,”
persons guilty of fornication, adultery, lewd and lascivious conduct,
and illicit cohabitation are to be considered and are hereby declared
to be reasonably suspected of having syphilis, gonorrhea, or chan-
croid, and no person convicted of any of said charges shall be released
until examined for such venereal diseases by the proper health officer,
his deputy or assistants, or agents.

5. Upon receipt of a report of a case of venereal disease in a per-
son conducting himself or herself in such a manner as to be a menace
to the public health, it shall be the duty of the health officer to insti-
tute measures for the protection of other persons from infection by
such diseased person.

(a) Local health officers are authorized and directed to quaran-
tine persons who have, or are reasonably suspected of having, syphilis,
gonorrhea, or chancroid whenever, in the opinion of said local health
officer, or the State board of health, or the State health commissioner
quarantine is necessary for the protection of the public health.

In establishing quarantine the health officer shall, anywhere within
the State, designate, and define the limits of, the areas in which the
person known to have, or reasonably suspected of having, syphilis,
gonorrhea, or chancroid, and his immediate attendant, are to be quar-
antined and no persons, other than the attending physician, shall enter,
or remain in, or leave the area of quarantine without the permission
or direction of the local health officer.
550 ACTS OF ASSEMBLY. [vA.

No one but the local health officer, or his authorjzed deputy, shall
terminate said quarantine, and this shall not be done until the sus-
pected person has been found not to be infected and the diseased
person has become free from the disease, as determined by the local
health officer, or his authorized deputy, through clinical examinations
and all necessary laboratory tests, or until permission has been given
him so to do by the State board of health or the State health com-
missioner. :

(b) The local health officer, or his duly authorized agent, may
parole persons pending final cure, but he shall inform all persons who
are about to be so released from quarantine for venereal disease, in
case they are not cured, what further treatment should be taken to
complete their cure.

6. Any druggist or other person who sells any drugs, compound,
specific or preparation of any kind used for, or believed by the drug-
gist or person to be intended to be used for, the treatment of any of
said venereal diseases, shall secure and keep a record of the name and
address of the person making such purchases, except when such drug,
compound, specific or preparation is used in filling a written prescrip-
tion by a physician licensed to practice medicine under the laws of
Virginia. A copy of said record shall be mailed, or otherwise deliv-
ered, each week to the State board of health. Such secords shall be
kept inaccessible to the public as provided in section nine of this act.

7. It shall be a violation of this act for any infected person to
knowingly expose another person to infection with any of the said
venereal diseases, or for any person to knowingly perform an act
which exposes another person to infection with venereal disease, for
which such offending person shall be guilty of a misdemeanor, and
fined not to exceed one hundred dollars ($100) and confined in jail
a term not to exceed six months.

8. Physicians, health officers and all other persons are prohibited
from issuing certificates of freedom from venereal diseases, except in
giving such ordinary certificates of freedom from infectious diseases
as may be necessary in reports of general examinations, and in cer-
tifying for the issuance of marriage license.

9. All information and reports concerning persons infected with
venereal diseases shall be filed by health officers to whom furnished
until finally disposed of by burning, but they shall be kept inaccessible
to the public except in so far as publicity may attend the perform-
ance of the duties imposed by the laws of the State.

10. All persons in quarantine, for the maintenance and treatment
of whom full remuneration 1s not regularly paid, may be required to
perform such work as is proper under the circumstances.

11. Any person violating the terms of this act shall be deemed
guilty of a misdemeanor and, upon conviction thereof, shall be fined
a sum not to exceed one hundred dollars ($100) or confined in jail
a term not to exceed sixty days, either or both; and in the discretion
of the court may thereafter be placed under a bond not exceeding one
thousand dollars ($1,000) for twelve months.
1920. | ACTS OF ASSEMBLY. 551