25 Tex. Admin. Code § 97.1 - Definitions and Applicability
This subchapter contains the general reporting and other control requirements related to communicable disease. Specific reporting and other control requirements applicable to sexually transmitted diseases (including AIDS and HIV) are found in Subchapter F of this chapter (relating to Sexually Transmitted Diseases Including Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) and Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV)). The following words and terms, when used in this chapter, shall have the following meanings unless the context clearly indicates otherwise.
(1)
Act--Communicable Disease Prevention and Control Act, Health and Safety Code,
Chapter 81.
(2) Advanced practice
nurse--A registered nurse authorized by the Board of Nurse Examiners to
practice as an advanced practice nurse based on completing an advanced
educational program. The term includes a nurse practitioner, nurse-midwife,
nurse anesthetist, and clinical nurse specialist.
(3) Carbapenem resistant
Enterobacteriaceae (CRE)--CRE-E. coli or
CRE-Klebsiella species as defined in the Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention, Patient Safety Component, Protocol for
Multidrug-Resistant Organism and Clostridium difficile
Infection (MDRO/CDI) Module, or its successor.
(4) Carrier--An infected person or animal
that harbors a specific infectious agent in the absence of discernible clinical
disease and serves as a potential source or reservoir of infection.
(5) Case--As distinct from a carrier, the
term "case" is used to mean a person or animal in whose tissues the etiological
agent of a communicable disease is lodged and which usually produces signs or
symptoms of disease. Evidence of the presence of a communicable disease may
also be revealed by laboratory findings.
(6) Commissioner--Commissioner of the
Department of State Health Services.
(7) Common carrier--Any vehicle or device
available to the public for transportation of persons, goods, or
messages.
(8) Communicable
disease--An illness due to an infectious agent or its toxic products which is
transmitted directly to a well person from an infected person or animal, or
indirectly through an intermediate plant or animal host, vector, or the
inanimate environment.
(9)
Contact--A person or animal that has been in such association with an infected
person or animal or a contaminated environment so as to have had opportunity to
acquire the infection.
(10)
Department--Department of State Health Services.
(11) Diarrhea--A watery or loose stool that
takes the shape of the container that holds it.
(12) Disinfection--Application of chemical or
physical agents to destroy infectious agents outside the body.
(13) Epidemic--The occurrence in a community
or region of a group of illnesses of similar nature, clearly in excess of
normal expectancy, and derived from a common or a propagated source.
(14) Exposure--A situation or circumstance in
which there is significant risk of becoming infected with the etiologic agent
for the disease involved.
(15)
Fever--A temperature of 100 degrees Fahrenheit (37.8 degrees Celsius) or
higher.
(16) Health authority--A
physician designated to administer state and local laws relating to public
health under the Local Public Health Reorganization Act, Health and Safety
Code, Chapter 121. The health authority, for purposes of this subchapter, may
be:
(A) a local health authority appointed by
the local government jurisdiction; or
(B) a regional director of the Department of
State Health Services if no physician has been appointed by the local
government.
(17)
Hepatitis B, perinatal infection--HBsAg positivity in any infant aged >1
through 24 months.
(18) Hospital
laboratory--Any laboratory that performs laboratory test procedures for a
patient of a hospital either as a part of the hospital or through contract with
the hospital.
(19)
Multidrug-resistant Acinetobacter
(MDR-A)--MDR-Acinetobacter species as defined by the Centers
for Disease Control and Prevention, Patient Safety Component, Protocol for
Multidrug-Resistant Organism and Clostridium difficile
Infection (MDRO/CDI) Module, or its successor.
(20) Notifiable condition--Any disease or
condition that is required to be reported under the Act or by this chapter. See
§
97.3 of this title (relating to
What Condition to Report and What Isolates to Report or Submit). Any outbreak,
exotic disease, or unusual group expression of illness which may be of public
health concern, whether or not the disease involved is listed in §
97.3 of this title, shall be
considered a "notifiable condition." The term "notifiable condition" is the
same as the term "reportable disease" as used in the Health and Safety Code,
Chapter 81.
(21) Outbreak--See
definition of epidemic in this section.
(22) Pandemic--A global disease epidemic or
an epidemic that crosses international borders and affects an extremely large
number of people.
(23) Physician--A
person licensed by the Texas Medical Board to practice medicine in
Texas.
(24) Physician assistant--A
person licensed as a physician assistant by the Texas Physician Assistant
Board.
(25) Regional director--The
physician who is the chief administrative officer of a region as designated by
the department under the Local Public Health Reorganization Act, Health and
Safety Code, Chapter 121.
(26)
Report--Information that is required to be provided to the
department.
(27) Report of a
disease--The notification to the appropriate authority of the occurrence of a
specific communicable disease in man or animals, including all information
required by the procedures established by the department.
(28) Research facility--A facility that is
licensed by the United States Department of Agriculture to use vertebrate
animals for research purposes and is in compliance with the federal Animal
Welfare Act (7 U.S.C., Chapter 54).
(29) School Administrator--The city or county
superintendent of schools or the principal of any school not under the
jurisdiction of a city or county board of education.
(30) Significant risk--A determination
relating to a human exposure to an etiologic agent for a particular disease,
based on reasonable medical judgments given the state of medical knowledge,
relating to the following:
(A) nature of the
risk (how the disease is transmitted);
(B) duration of the risk (how long an
infected person may be infectious);
(C) severity of the risk (what is the
potential harm to others); and
(D)
probability the disease will be transmitted and will cause varying degrees of
harm.
(31) Specimen
Submission Form--A current Department of State Health Services laboratory
specimen submission form available from the Department of State Health
Services, Laboratory Services Section, 1100 West 49th Street, Austin, Texas,
78756-3199.
(32)
Vancomycin-intermediate Staphylococcus aureus
(VISA)--Staphylococcus aureus with a vancomycin minimum
inhibitory concentration (MIC) of 4 µg/mL through 8
µg/mL.
(33)
Vancomycin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus
(VRSA)--Staphylococcus aureus with a vancomycin MIC of 16
µg/mL or greater.
(34)
Veterinarian--A person licensed by the Texas State Board of Veterinary Medical
Examiners to practice veterinary medicine in Texas.
Notes
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