(a) When the Commissioner of Health determines, as a result of an examination as provided by sections 1055 and 1056 of this title, that any person has tuberculosis in an active stage and in communicable form to an extent that the person may expose other persons or the public generally to danger of infection, he or she shall investigate the circumstances thereof and if he or she finds that the person does constitute a health hazard to the public, he or she may request the court to order the person to a hospital or other suitable place and require appropriate medical management of the person therein until he or she determines that the management is no longer necessary. Such medical care and treatment as the Commissioner of Health considers necessary and proper may be furnished to the sick person at the expense of the State. Treatment shall not be imposed on any person against his or her will unless the Commissioner determines that the person constitutes a public health hazard without such treatment.

(b) Nothing in sections 1055 to 1061 of this title shall be construed to compel any person who is being treated by prayer or spiritual means alone in accordance with the tenets and practice of a well-recognized church or religious denomination by a duly accredited practitioner to be medically managed in a place to which he or she objects as long as suitable healing methods or isolation can be maintained in a place of his or her own choosing, provided that he or she does not constitute a public health hazard as determined by the Commissioner, and that all sanitation rules are complied with. (Added 1967, No. 49, § 3; amended 1973, No. 89, § 5; 2013, No. 96 (Adj. Sess.), § 92; 2017, No. 113 (Adj. Sess.), § 59.)