California Code of Regulations › Title 17 - Public Health › Division 1 - State Department of Health Services › Chapter 4 - Preventive Medical Service › Subchapter 1 - Reportable Diseases and Conditions › Article 1 - Reporting › Section 2500 - Reporting to the Local Health Authority

Current through Register 2024 Notice Reg. No. 28, July 12, 2024
(a)
					 The following definitions shall govern the interpretation of this Subchapter.
(1) 'CDC' means the Centers for Disease Control
					 and Prevention, United States Department of Health and Human Services.
(2) 'CSTE' means the Council of State and
					 Territorial Epidemiologists.
(3) 'MMWR'
					 means the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.
(4) 'Acute HIV infection' means detectable HIV-1
					 RNA or p24 antigen in serum or plasma in the setting of a negative or indeterminate
					 HIV-1 antibody test result for patients tested using a currently approved HIV test
					 algorithm, as defined in section
					 2641.57.
(5) 'Case' means
(A) a person who has been diagnosed by a health
					 care provider, who is lawfully authorized to diagnose, using clinical judgment or
					 laboratory evidence, to have a particular disease or condition listed in subsection
					 (j); or
(B) a person who is considered to
					 have a disease or condition that satisfies the most recent communicable disease
					 surveillance case definitions established by the CDC and/or CSTE; or
(C) an animal that has been determined, by a
					 person authorized to do so, to have a disease or condition made reportable by these
					 regulations; or
(D) a person who has
					 been diagnosed with HIV infection using a currently approved HIV test algorithm, as
					 defined in section
					 2641.57.
(6) 'Clinical signs' means the objective evidence
					 of disease.
(7) 'Clinical symptoms'
					 means the subjective sensation of disease felt by the patient.
(8) 'Communicable disease' means an illness due to
					 a specific microbiological or parasitic agent or its toxic products which arises
					 through transmission of that agent or its products from an infected person, animal,
					 or inanimate reservoir to a susceptible host, either directly or indirectly through
					 an intermediate plant or animal host, vector, or the inanimate
					 environment.
(9) 'Director' means State
					 Director of Public Health.
(10) 'Drug
					 susceptibility testing' means the process where at least one isolate from a culture
					 of a patient's specimen is subjected to antimicrobial testing to determine if growth
					 is inhibited by drugs commonly used to treat such infections, or another type of
					 test using an isolate or specimen that identifies genetic or other features of a
					 microorganism associated with antimicrobial resistance.
(11) 'Epidemiological risk factors' means those
					 attributes, behaviors, exposures, or other factors that alter the probability of
					 disease.
(12) 'Epidemiologically linked
					 case' means a case in which the patient is likely to have had contact with one or
					 more persons who have/had the disease, and transmission of the agent by the usual
					 modes of transmission is plausible.
(13)
					 'Foodborne disease' means illness suspected to have resulted from consuming a
					 contaminated food, non-water beverage, or other ingestible item such as a dietary
					 supplement or herbal remedy.
(14)
					 'Foodborne disease outbreak' means an incident in which two or more persons
					 experience a similar illness after ingestion of a common contaminated food,
					 non-water beverage, or other ingestible item such as a dietary supplement or herbal
					 remedy.
(15) 'Health care provider'
					 means a physician and surgeon, a veterinarian, a podiatrist, a nurse practitioner, a
					 physician assistant, a registered nurse, a nurse midwife, a school nurse, an
					 infection control practitioner, a medical examiner, a coroner, or a
					 dentist.
(16) 'Health officer' and
					 'local health officer' as used in this subchapter includes county, city, and
					 district health officers.
(17) 'In
					 attendance' means the existence of the relationship whereby a health care provider
					 renders those services which are authorized by the health care provider's licensure
					 or certification.
(18) 'Infection
					 control practitioner' means any person designated by a hospital, nursing home,
					 clinic, or other health care facility as having responsibilities which include the
					 detection, reporting, control and prevention of infections within the
					 institution.
(19) 'Laboratory findings'
					 means
(A) the results of a laboratory examination
					 of any specimen derived from the human body which yields microscopic, culture,
					 immunologic, serologic, molecular, pathologic, or other evidence suggestive of a
					 disease or condition made reportable by these regulations; or
(B) the results of a laboratory examination of any
					 specimen derived from an animal which yields evidence of a disease or condition in
					 animals made reportable by these regulations.
(20) 'Multidrug-resistant
Mycobacterium
					 tuberculosis
' means a laboratory culture or subculture of
Mycobacterium tuberculosis
which is determined by antimicrobial
					 susceptibility testing to be resistant to at least isoniazid and rifampin.
(21) 'Pandemic potential' means the potential
					 ability of a pathogen to spread easily and efficiently in the human population,
					 crossing international boundaries, and usually affecting many people. Such pathogens
					 may be associated with severe illness and death.
(22) 'Outbreak' means the occurrence of cases of a
					 disease (illness) above the expected or baseline level, usually over a given period
					 of time, in a geographic area or facility, or in a specific population group. The
					 number of cases indicating the presence of an outbreak will vary according to the
					 disease agent, size and type of population exposed, previous exposure to the agent,
					 and the time and place of occurrence. Thus, the designation of an outbreak is
					 relative to the usual frequency of the disease in the same facility or community,
					 among the specified population, over a comparable period of time. A single case of a
					 communicable disease long absent from a population or the first invasion by a
					 disease not previously recognized may constitute an outbreak and require immediate
					 reporting and epidemiologic investigation.
(23) 'Personal information' means any information
					 that identifies or describes a person, including, but not limited to, his or her
					 name, social security number, date of birth, physical description, home address,
					 home telephone number, and medical or employment history.
(24) 'Sexually Transmitted Diseases' means
					 Chancroid, Lymphogranuloma venereum, Syphilis, Gonorrhea, and Chlamydia.
(25) 'Suspected case' means
(A) a person whom a health care provider believes,
					 after weighing signs, symptoms, and/or laboratory evidence, to probably have a
					 particular disease or condition listed in subsection (j); or
(B) a person who is considered a probable case, or
					 an epidemiologically-linked case, or who has supportive laboratory findings under
					 the most recent communicable disease surveillance case definition established by CDC
					 or CSTE; or
(C) an animal which has been
					 determined by a veterinarian to exhibit clinical signs or which has laboratory
					 findings suggestive of a disease or condition in animals made reportable by these
					 regulations.
(26) 'Unusual
					 disease' means a rare disease or a newly apparent or emerging disease or syndrome of
					 uncertain etiology which a health care provider has reason to believe could possibly
					 be caused by a transmissible infectious agent or microbial toxin.
(27) 'Waterborne disease outbreak' means an
					 incident in which two or more epidemiologically-linked persons experienced a similar
					 illness after exposure to the same water source and epidemiologic investigation by
					 public health authorities implicates the water as the likely source of the illness.
					 This includes any outbreak of an infectious disease, chemical poisoning, or
					 toxin-mediated illness where water is indicated as the source by an epidemiological
					 investigation.