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.

Source Note: The provisions of this §97.1 adopted to be effective March 16, 1994, 19 TexReg 1453; amended to be effective July 26, 1996, 21 TexReg 6622; amended to be effective March 5, 1998, 23 TexReg 1954; amended to be effective January 1, 1999, 23 TexReg 12663; amended to be effective December 20, 2000, 25 TexReg 12426; amended to be effective August 5, 2001, 26 TexReg 5658; amended to be effective June 5, 2007, 32 TexReg 2997; amended to be effective December 20, 2012, 37 TexReg 9777; amended to be effective April 20, 2014, 39 TexReg 2853; amended to be effective April 3, 2016, 41 TexReg 2317