1. (a) The following reportable diseases are public health emergencies and suspect cases shall be reported immediately by phone to the local health authority or the regional director of the Texas Department of Health (department): botulism, foodborne; cholera; diphtheria; Haemophilus influenzae type b infection, invasive; measles (rubeola); meningococcal infection, invasive; pertussis; poliomyelitis, acute paralytic; plague; rabies in man; viral hemorrhagic fevers; yellow fever. Vancomycin resistant Staphylococcus aureus and vancomycin resistant coagulase negative Staphylococcus species shall be reported immediately by phone or fax to the Infectious Disease Epidemiology and Surveillance Division, Texas Department of Health, Austin.
2. (b) The following reportable diseases shall be reported within one working day of identification as a suspected case: rubella (including congenital) and tuberculosis disease.
3. (c) AIDS, chancroid, Chlamydia trachomatis infection, gonorrhea, HIV infection, and syphilis shall be reported in accordance with §§97.132 - 97.135 of this title (relating to Sexually Transmitted Diseases including AIDS and HIV infection);
4. (d) Tuberculosis antibiotic susceptibility results should be reported by laboratories no later than one week after they first become available.
5. (e) For all other reportable diseases not listed in subsections (a)-(c) of this section, reports of disease shall be made no later than one week after a case or suspected case is identified.
6. (f) For Enterococcus species; vancomycin resistant Enterococcus species; Streptococcus pneumoniae; and penicillin - resistant Streptococcus pneumoniae - reports shall be made no later than the last working day of March, June, September, and December.
7. (g) All Neisseria meningitidis from normally sterile sites, all vancomycin resistant Staphylococcus aureus, and all vancomycin resistant coagulase negative Staphylococcus species shall be submitted as pure cultures to the Texas Department of Health, Bureau of Laboratories, 1100 West 49th Street, Austin, Texas 78756-3199 as they become available.

Source Note:The provisions of this §97.4 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.