Hawaii Administrative Rules
Title 11 - DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH
Subtitle 1 - GENERAL DEPARTMENTAL PROVISIONS
Chapter 156 - COMMUNICABLE DISEASES
Section 11-156-2 - Definitions

As used in this chapter:

"Bloodborne pathogen" means any pathogenic microorganisms that are present in human blood and can cause disease in humans. These pathogens include, but are not limited to, hepatitis viruses and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV).

"Carrier" means a person (or animal) that harbors a specific infectious agent in the absence of discernible clinical disease and serves as a potential source of infection.

"Case" means a person or animal that harbors an infectious agent and has manifest disease.

"Chemoprophylaxis" means the administration of a chemical, including antibiotics, to prevent the development of an infection or the progression of an infection to manifest disease.

"Communicable disease" means an illness which arises through transmission of a specific infectious agent or its toxic products from an infected person, animal, or inanimate reservoir to a susceptible host.

"Contact" means a person or animal that has been in association with an infected person or a contaminated environment which might provide an opportunity to acquire the infectious agent.

"Control" means the ongoing operations or programs aimed at reducing incidence and/or prevalence of communicable disease and some noncommunicable conditions.

"Control Group or, Control" means subject(s) with whom a comparison is made in a case control study, or other variety of epidemiologic study.

"Department" means the department of health of the State of Hawaii. Unless otherwise indicated, the department of health is represented by the district health office on the neighbor islands and the disease investigation branch on Oahu.

"Direct care provider" means a person engaged in the care of children, patients, elderly, or the infirm.

"Director" means the director of health of the State of Hawaii, or the director's duly authorized agent.

"Health care provider" or "provider" means a physician (M.D. or D.O.), chiropractor, naturopath, dentist, or the director of a hospital or a long-term care facility.

"Immunization" is a technique used to cause an immune response that results in resistance to a specific disease. "Isolation" means separation during the period of communicability of infected persons or animals from others to prevent or limit the direct or indirect transmission of the infectious agent from those who are infected and who may spread the agent to others. Isolation procedures fall into three categories as listed below.

(1) "Strict isolation", to prevent the transmission of highly contagious or virulent infections that may be spread by both air and contact.

(2) "Contact isolation", to prevent transmission of less highly transmissible diseases spread primarily by close or direct contact.

(3) "Respiratory isolation", to prevent the transmission of infectious diseases over short distances through the air.

"Laboratory" means any institution, building or place (including a blood bank) in which or by which operations or procedures for the microbiologic, serologic, chemical, hematologic, biophysical, toxicologic, cytologic or pathologic examinations of specimens taken from the human or animal body or the environment are performed to obtain information to guide diagnosis, prophylaxis or treatment.

"Observation" means the practice of close medical or other supervision of contacts in order to permit prompt recognition of infection or illness but without restricting their movements.

"Outbreak" means the occurrence in a community or region of an illness clearly in excess of normal expectancy.

"Positive HIV test result" means the reported result of any test that unequivocally indicates that the subject of the test is infected with HIV. This includes any positive confirmatory HIV antibody test, any positive HIV detection test, and any viral load test which indicates a viral load above the minimum limit for detection level.

"Practitioner" means a physician who is licensed under the provisions of chapter 453 or 460, HRS, a physician assistant licensed under the provisions of chapter 453, HRS, or an advanced practice registered nurse recognized under the provisions of chapter 457, HRS, and shall include those persons authorized to practice medicine as a physician or nursing as an advanced practice registered nurse in federal facilities located in the State.

"Provisional diagnosis" means the most likely diagnosis based on clinical history and signs and/or symptoms, pending laboratory confirmation.

"School" means any day care center, child care facility, head start program, preschool, kindergarten, elementary or secondary school, public or private, university or college or vocational school, including any special school for children in the State.

"Sexually transmitted infection" means an infection that is commonly transmitted through sexual contact. Sexual contact includes and is not limited to oral contact, vaginal intercourse, anal intercourse, and oral-genital and oral-oral contact.

"Suspected case" means a person whose medical history and symptoms suggest that he or she may have or be developing some communicable disease.