Pennsylvania Code › Title 28 - HEALTH AND SAFETY › Part III - Prevention of Diseases › Chapter 27 - COMMUNICABLE AND NONCOMMUNICABLE DISEASES › Subchapter A - GENERAL PROVISIONS › Section 27.1 - Definitions

Current through Register Vol. 54, No. 28, July 13, 2024
The following words and terms, when used in this chapter,
					 have the following meanings, unless the context clearly indicates
					 otherwise:
Acute pain
ACIP
-The Advisory Committee on
					 Immunization Practices of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention,
					 United States Department of Health and Human Services.
AIDS (Acquired Immune Deficiency
					 Syndrome)
-As defined by the CDC case definition published in the CDC
Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report
(MMWR). (The Department
					 will publish in the Pennsylvania Bulletin a reference to a CDC update of the
					 case definition within 30 days of its publication in the MMWR).
Act
-The Disease Prevention and Control Law
					 of 1955 (35 P. S. §§
											521.1-
					 521.21).
Anonymous HIV Testing
-HIV testing
					 performed at a State-designated HIV testing site for an individual who chooses
					 not to provide his name in giving consent for the testing.
Board
-The Advisory Health Board of the
					 Department.
CDC
-Centers for Disease Control and
					 Prevention.
Caregiver
-The entity or individual
					 responsible for the safe and healthful care or education of a child in a child
					 care group setting.
Carrier
-A person who, without any
					 apparent symptoms of a communicable disease, harbors a specific infectious
					 agent and may serve as a source of infection.
Case
-A person or animal that is
					 determined to have or suspected of having a disease, infection or
					 condition.
Case report form
-The form designated by
					 the Department for reporting a case or a carrier.
Central office
-Department headquarters
					 located in Harrisburg.
Child
-A person under 18 years of
					 age.
Child care group setting
-The premises in
					 which care is provided at any one time to four or more children, unrelated to
					 the operator.
Clinical laboratory
-A laboratory for
					 which a permit has been issued to operate as a clinical laboratory under the
					 Clinical Laboratory Act (35 P. S. §§
											2151-2165).
Communicable disease
-An illness which is
					 capable of being spread to a susceptible host through the direct or indirect
					 transmission of an infectious agent or its toxic product by an infected person,
					 animal or arthropod, or through the inanimate environment.
Communicable period
-The time during which
					 an etiologic agent may be transferred directly or indirectly from an infected
					 person to another person, or from an infected animal to a person.
Confidential HIV testing
-HIV testing
					 performed for an individual who, in giving his consent for the testing,
					 provides his name and other personal or demographic identifiers.
Contact
-A person or animal known to have
					 had an association with an infected person or animal which presented an
					 opportunity for acquiring the infection.
County morbidity reporting area
-A county
					 so designated by the Board wherein initial reports for communicable and
					 noncommunicable diseases are to be reported to the State health center of the
					 Department.
Department
-The Department of Health of
					 the Commonwealth.
District office
-One of the district
					 headquarters of the Department located within this Commonwealth.
Electronic Disease Surveillance
					 System
-Any of the electronic, web-based platforms that the Department
					 uses to collect and manage information reportable under §
										27.2 (relating to specific
					 identified reportable diseases, infections and conditions). For purposes of
					 this chapter, the term includes an electronic laboratory reporting
					 system.
Electronic Laboratory Reporting
					 System
-The electronic platform that the Department uses to receive and
					 process information electronically generated by clinical laboratories to
					 fulfill their reporting responsibilities under §
										27.22 (relating to reporting of
					 cases by clinical laboratories). Information submitted to the electronic
					 laboratory reporting system will be routed to the Department's electronic
					 disease surveillance system when appropriate.
FDA
-Food and Drug Administration.
HIV services
-The range of services,
					 including prevention, counseling, testing, treatment, case management, support
					 and referral services, which are provided to persons infected with or affected
					 by HIV or AIDS, and are intended to alleviate physical and psychosocial
					 problems created by these diseases and conditions.
Health care facility
-
(i) A chronic disease, or other type of
				  hospital, a home health care agency, a hospice, a long-term care nursing
				  facility, a cancer treatment center using radiation therapy on an ambulatory
				  basis, an ambulatory surgical facility, a birth center, and an inpatient drug
				  and alcohol treatment facility, regardless of whether the health care facility
				  is operated for profit, nonprofit or by an agency of the Commonwealth or local
				  government.
(ii) The term does not
				  include:
(A) An office used primarily for the
				  private practice of a health care practitioner.
(B) A facility providing treatment solely on
				  the basis of prayer or spiritual means in accordance with the tenets of any
				  church or religious denomination.
(C) A facility conducted by a religious
				  organization for the purpose of providing health care services exclusively to
				  clergy or other persons in a religious profession who are members of a
				  religious denomination.