Sec. 81.045.  REPORTS OF DEATH.  (a)  A physician who attends a person during the person's last illness shall immediately notify the health authority of the jurisdiction in which the person's death is pronounced or the department if the physician knows or suspects that the person died of a reportable disease or other communicable disease that the physician believes may be a threat to the public health.
(b)  An attending physician or health authority, with consent of the survivors, may request an autopsy if the physician or health authority needs further information concerning the cause of death in order to protect the public health.  The health authority shall order the autopsy to determine the cause of death if there are no survivors or the survivors withhold consent to the autopsy.  The autopsy results shall be reported to the department.
(c)  A justice of the peace acting as coroner or a county medical examiner in the course of an inquest under Chapter 49, Code of Criminal Procedure, who finds that a person's cause of death was a reportable disease or other communicable disease that the coroner or medical examiner believes may be a threat to the public health shall immediately notify the health authority of the jurisdiction in which the finding is made or the department.
(d)  If the department provides to a health authority, who serves in that office part-time as described by Section 121.0245, information on a death from a reportable or other communicable disease reported to the department under this section, the department shall also provide the information to the director of the local health department for the county served by the health authority.
Acts 1989, 71st Leg., ch. 678, Sec. 1, eff. Sept. 1, 1989.
Amended by: 
Acts 2021, 87th Leg., R.S., Ch. 566 (S.B. 464), Sec. 1, eff. June 14, 2021.