Except for diseases for which equivalent measures of investigation and control are specifically provided in other sections in this chapter, the Commissioner of Health (commissioner), a health authority, or a duly authorized representative of the commissioner or a health authority may proceed as follows.
  (1) Investigation shall be made, as the circumstances may require, for verifying the diagnosis, ascertaining the source of the causative agent, disclosing unreported cases, and finding contacts. On request, a person shall provide the Department of State Health Services (department) or health authority with records, data, and other information according to the written instruction of the department or health authority. The health authority and the department shall keep this information confidential.
  (2) Laboratory specimens of the body tissues, fluids, or discharges and of materials directly or indirectly associated with the case, as may be necessary or desirable in confirmation of the diagnosis or for ascertaining the source of the infection, shall be collected and submitted to a laboratory for examination.
  (3) Control techniques, including disinfection, environmental sanitation, immunization, chemoprophylaxis, isolation, preventive therapy, quarantine, education, prevention, and other accepted measures shall be instituted as necessary to reduce morbidity and mortality. In establishing quarantine or isolation, the health authority shall designate and define the limits of the areas in which the persons are quarantined or isolated.
  (4) Information concerning the disease and its prevention shall be given to the patient or a responsible member of the patient's household to prevent further spread of the disease.
  (5) Control measures implemented by the health authority shall be consistent with and at least as stringent as those control measure standards imposed by the department. Individual control measures implemented by the health authority are subject to review and modification or change by the commissioner.

Source Note: The provisions of this §97.8 adopted to be effective March 16, 1994, 19 TexReg 1453; amended to be effective December 20, 2000, 25 TexReg 12426; amended to be effective June 5, 2007, 32 TexReg 2997