West Virginia Code of State Rules › Agency 64 - Health › Title 64 - LEGISLATIVE RULE WEST VIRGINIA DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN RESOURCES › Series 64-07 - Reportable Diseases, Events and Conditions › Section 64-7-2 - Definitions

Current through Register Vol. XLI, No. 28, July 12, 2024
2.1. Animal health
				care providers - Veterinarians or veterinary technicians or other individuals
				providing health care to animals.
2.2 Automatic reporting capability - The
				ability of an electronic laboratory reporting system to report laboratory
				findings through an electronic interfaceusing HL7 messaging such that data is
				automatically transferred from a laboratory database to the West Virginia
				Health Information Network (WVHIN) or the West Virginia Electronic Disease
				Surveillance System (WVEDSS
)
without human
				intervention.
2.3. Biological toxin
				- Toxin produced by microorganisms, including botulinium toxin or toxins of
				Staphylococcus aureus or Clostridium perfringens; or toxic products or
				byproducts of higher plants or animals, such as ricin.
2.4. Bioterrorism Agent - Infectious agent or
				biological toxin deliberately introduced into the food, air, water or other
				part of the environment; or directly into an animal or human with the criminal
				intent of causing disease in animals or humans.
2.5. Bioterrorist event - The occurrence of a
				case of disease or a disease outbreak due to a bioterrorism agent; or attempted
				exposure of one or more individuals to a bioterrorism agent.
2.6. Bureau - The Bureau for public health of
				the West Virginia department of health and human resources.
2.7. Case - An occurrence of disease in a
				human or animal which meets a specific case definition listed in the West
				Virginia Reportable Diseases Protocol Manual or a case definition approved by
				the Commissioner. (Manual is available online at
www.dide.wv.gov
)
2.8. Center for Medicare and Medicaid
				Services (CMS) - The Federal agency responsible for providing health coverage
				for Medicare and Medicaid beneficiaries and promoting quality of care for these
				beneficiaries.
2.9. Cluster - An
				aggregation of cases of disease in time and place with or without exceeding the
				expected number of cases; frequently the expected number of cases is not known.
2.10. Commissioner - The
				Commissioner of the Bureau for public health of the West Virginia department of
				health and human resources or his or her designee.
2.11. Communicable Disease - A disease caused
				by an infectious agent or its toxic products, which is transmitted, directly or
				indirectly, to a susceptible host from an infected person, animal, arthropod,
				environmental exposure or other source.
2.12. Department - The West Virginia
				department of health and human resources.
2.13. Electronic laboratory reporting -
				Reporting of laboratory data to the West Virginia Health Information Network
				(WVHIN) or the West Virginia Electronic Disease Surveillance System (WVEDSS) by
				use of HL7 messaging standards.
2.14. Extensible Markup Language (XML) - A
				markup language that defines a set of rules for encoding documents in a format
				that is both human-readable and machine-readable.
2.15. Epidemic - An outbreak or the
				occurrence of more cases of disease than expected in a given area among a
				specific group of people over a particular period of time.
2.16. Epidemiologic Information - Medical and
				risk factordata or other information, interviews, investigative reports, other
				records and notes collected during the course of an epidemiologic investigation
				of a disease, condition, or outbreak.
2.17. Epidemiologic Investigation - An
				investigation to determine the distribution, determinants and risk factors for
				disease in a specified population, for the purpose of prevention or control of
				the disease in the population; or to evaluate prevention and control efforts;
				or for increased understanding of the effects of the disease on the
				population.
2.18. Foodborne
				outbreak - An incident in which two or more persons experience a similar
				illness after ingestion of a common food, and epidemiologic analysis implicates
				the food as the source of the illness.
2.19. Health care provider - Any physician,
				dentist, nurse, or other individual who provides medical, dental, nursing, or
				other health care services of any kind to individuals.
2.20. Health care facility - Any hospital,
				nursing home, clinic, cancer treatment center, laboratory, or other facility
				which provides health care or diagnostic services to individuals, whether
				public or privately owned.
2.21.
				Health level 7 (HL7) messaging - Consensus standards for sharing electronic
				clinical and administrative data between health information systems. HL7
				standards are found at:
http://hl7.org
.
2.22. Health or Safety Emergency - As defined
				under the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act's (FERPA) health or safety
				emergency provision. "Health or Safety Emergency Situation" may include an
				outbreak of infectious disease occurring in a school or a case of reportable
				disease in a school that may be transmitted by casual contact in a school or
				community setting.
2.23. Healthcare
				Associated Infection (HAI) - Infections caused by a wide variety of common and
				unusual bacteria, fungi and viruses during the course of receiving medical
				care.
2.24. Hospital - A facility
				licensed as a hospital under WV Division of Health Legislative Rule, Hospital
				Licensure, 64 CSR 12.
2.25.
				Infectious Agent - A biological organism such as a bacteria, parasite or virus;
				or a bacterial toxin; or a prion capable of causing disease in animals or man
				when introduced into the individual through water, air, food, the environment
				or by the percutaneous or other route.
2.26. Intentional Exposure - The deliberate
				introduction of a harmful agent into the air, water, food or environment of an
				individual or group of individuals with the intent of causing
				disease.
2.27. International
				Society for Disease Surveillance (ISDS) - A 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization
				founded in 2005 and dedicated to the improvement of population health by
				advancing the science and practice of disease surveillance. Information is
				available at:
http://www.syndromic.org
/.
2.28. Isolate - A pure culture of a bacteria,
				usually identified by a clinical laboratory from culture of a specimen from a
				patient. Isolates are usually stored on an agar plate or slant or in nutrient
				broth.
2.29. Isolation - The
				separation of infected persons or animals from other persons or animals, under
				the necessary time frame and conditions to prevent the direct or indirect
				transmission of the infectious agent from the infected persons or animals to
				other persons or animals who are susceptible or who may spread the disease to
				others.
2.30. Laboratory - Any
				licensedfacility or place, however named, for the biologic, microbiologic,
				serologic, virologic, chemical, hematologic, immuno-hematologic, biophysical,
				cytologic, pathologic, genetic, molecularor other examination of materials for
				the purpose of providing medical or epidemiologic information for the
				diagnosis, prevention or treatment of any disease, or the assessment of the
				health of human beings. The term "laboratory" includes both public and private
				laboratories, free-standing laboratories, and hospital laboratories.
2.31. Law Enforcement Personnel - Any person
				who is employed by a local, county, state or federal agency with law
				enforcement responsibilities.
2.32.
				Local Board of Health - A board of health serving one or more counties, one or
				more municipalities, or a combination thereof.
2.33. Local Health Department - The staff of
				the local board of health.
2.34.
				Local Health Officer - The individual who fulfills the duties and
				responsibilities of the health officer for a local board of health, or his or
				her designee.
2.35. Medical
				Information - Data or other information regarding the history, examination,
				radiological orlaboratory findings, diagnosis, treatment, or other clinical
				care for a person examined or treated for a suspected or actual
				disease.
2.36. National Healthcare
				Surveillance Network (NHSN) - A secure, internet-based surveillance system for
				patient and healthcare personnel safety systems managed by the Division of
				Healthcare Quality Promotion (DHQP) at the Centers for Disease Control and
				Prevention (hereinafter CDC). Enrollment is open to all types of health care
				facilities in the United States, including acute care hospitals, long term
				acute care hospitals, psychiatric hospitals, rehabilitation hospitals,
				outpatient dialysis centers, ambulatory surgery centers and long term care
				facilities. NHSN can accept retrospective reports beginning with January of the
				year that the facility first enrolled in NHSN.
2.37. Nursing Home - Any facility licensed as
				a nursing home under WV Legislative Rule, Nursing Home Licensure, 64CSR13, or
				any extended care facility operated in conjunction with a hospital.
2.38. Outbreak - The occurrence of more cases
				of disease than expected in a given area among a specific group of people over
				a particular period of time or an epidemic.
2.39. OLS - The office of laboratory services
				in the Bureau.
2.40. Physician - An
				individual licensed to practice medicine by either the board of medicine or the
				board of osteopathy.
2.41.
				Placarding - The posting on a home, building or other structure of a sign or
				notice warning of the presence of a communicable disease or other health hazard
				and the danger of the disease or hazard within or beyond the placarded home,
				building or structure.
2.42.
				Prevention collaborative - A group of health care facilities that are engaged
				in an effort to reduce Healthcare Associated Infections (hereinafter HAI).
				Members of the collaborative use a common, though not necessarily identical,
				approach. The members discuss progress regularly and share lessons learned in
				real time so that others in the group can benefit from the experience of each
				facility.
2.43. Quarantine - The
				limitation of freedom of movement of persons or animals in a time frame and
				manner to prevent contacts that could lead to spread of disease.
2.44. Real time electronic feed - Automated
				electronic reporting, usually of laboratory results, such that electronic
				laboratory reports are routinely delivered to the Bureau within no more than 24
				hours after results are available.
2.45. Reportable Disease or Condition - Any
				disease or condition required to be reported by this rule.
2.46. STD - Sexually transmitted
				disease.
2.47. Surveillance - The
				systematic collection, analysis, interpretation and dissemination of health
				data on an ongoing basis, to gain knowledge of the pattern of disease
				occurrence and potential in a community; or to understand the disease patterns
				in the community in order to control and prevent disease in the community, or
				to evaluate prevention and control efforts.
2.48. Surveillance Region - A grouping of
				counties for the purposes of aggregating surveillance data and providing
				coverage by a regional epidemiologist. Surveillance regions are usually
				self-selected by the counties and are listed at:
www.dide.wv.gov
.
2.49. Syndromic surveillance - Systematic
				collection of data from the point of care, usually based on chief complaint
				data, often without a definitive diagnosis, for the purpose of supplementing
				other sources of surveillance data.
2.50. Validated Submitter - A laboratory
				whose transmission of electronic laboratory data to WVHIN or WVEDSS by HL7
				messaging has been validated by the Commissioner. Validation involves
				submission of paper and electronic copies of laboratory data until it is
				established that electronic reporting is at least as accurate and complete as
				paper-based reporting.
2.51.
				Veterinarian - A doctor of veterinary medicine.
2.52. Waterborne outbreak - An incident in
				which two or more persons experience a similar illness after consumption or use
				of water and epidemiologic evidence implicates the water as the source of the
				illness.
2.53. WVEDSS - West
				Virginia Electronic Disease Surveillance System - An electronic data system for
				reporting and tracking cases of infectious diseases reported from local health
				departments and laboratories to the bureau and to the Centers for Disease
				Control and Prevention (CDC). WVEDSS is part of the national electronic disease
				surveillance system (NEDSS). WVEDSS may use either HL7 or XML data
				formats.
2.54. WVHIN - West
				Virginia Health Information Network - An electronic system for data exchange
				operated by the West Virginia Healthcare Authority for the purpose of
				exchanging information between laboratories, health providers and health
				facilities. WVHIN is capable of receiving HL7 messaging through a real time
				data feed.
2.55. WVSIIS - West
				Virginia Statewide Immunization Information System - An electronic registry of
				immunization information for children and adults for the purpose of maintaining
				an integrated immunization record for all people in the state. WVSIIS data may
				bemade available to immunization providers, health care providers, public
				health investigators and school personnel to search immunization records for
				school entry requirements, with appropriate limits on access. The
				administration of adult immunization should also be reported to
				WVSIIS.
2.56. Zoonotic disease
				-Adisease that is potentially transmitted to humans by direct or indirect
				contact with animals or animal products or by exposure to animals or animal
				products.