1. (1) Act - Communicable Disease Prevention and Control Act, Health and Safety Code, Chapter 81.
2. (2) 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 for the infection of man.
3. (3) Case - As distinct from a carrier, the term "case" is used to mean a person 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.
4. (4) Commissioner - Commissioner of Health.
5. (5) 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.
6. (6) Contact - A person or animal that has been in such association with an infected person or a contaminated environment so as to have had opportunity to acquire the infection.
7. (7) Department - Texas Department of Health.
8. (8) Disinfection - Destruction of infectious agents outside the body by chemical or physical means directly applied.
9. (9) Epidemic or outbreak - 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.
10. (10) Exposure--A situation or circumstance in which there is significant risk of becoming infected with the etiologic agent for the disease involved.

11. (11) 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 these sections, may be:

    1. (A) a local health authority:

       1. (i) director of a local health department; or
       2. (ii) physician as appointed by the Commissioner of Health if there is no director of a local health department.
    2. (B) a regional director of the Texas Department of Health if no physician has been appointed by the Commissioner of Health as a local health authority.
12. (12) 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.
13. (13) Outbreak - See definition of epidemic in this section.
14. (14) Penicillin resistant Streptococcus pneumoniae - Streptococcus pneumoniae with a penicillin minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) of 2 µg/mL or greater (high level), and an intermediate level resistance of 0.1- 1 µg/mL.
15. (15) Physician - A person licensed by the Texas State Board of Medical Examiners to practice medicine in Texas.
16. (16) 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.
17. (17) Report - Information that is required to be provided to the department.
18. (18) 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.
19. (19) Reportable disease - Any disease or condition that is required to be reported under the Act or by these sections. 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 "reportable disease."

20. (20) Significant risk - A determination relating to a human exposure to an etiologic agent for a particular disease, based on reasonable medical judgements given the state of medical knowledge, relating to the following:

    1. (A) nature of the risk (how the disease is transmitted);
    2. (B) duration of the risk (how long an infected person may be infectious);
    3. (C) severity of the risk (what is the potential harm to others); and
    4. (D) probability the disease will be transmitted and will cause varying degrees of harm.
21. (21) 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.
22. (22) Specimen Submission Form G-1 - A multipurpose specimen submission form available from the Texas Department of Health, Bureau of Laboratories, 1100 West 49th Street, Austin, Texas, 78756-3199.
23. (23) Vancomycin resistant Enterococcus species - Enterococcus species with a vancomycin MIC greater than 16 micrograms per milliliter (µg/mL) or a disk diffusion zone of 14 millimeters or less. Vancomycin intermediate Enterococcus (eg, Enterococcus casseliflavis and Enterococcus gallinarum) with a vancomycin MIC of 8 µg/mL - 16 µg/mL do not need to be reported.
24. (24) Vancomycin resistant Staphylococcus aureus and vancomycin resistant coagulase negative Staphylococcus species - For the purposes of reporting, Staphylococcus aureus or a coagulase negative Staphylococcus species with a vancomycin MIC of 8 µg/mL or greater.

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.