Texas Administrative Code
Title 25 - HEALTH SERVICES
Part 1 - DEPARTMENT OF STATE HEALTH SERVICES
Chapter 97 - COMMUNICABLE DISEASES
Subchapter A - CONTROL OF COMMUNICABLE DISEASES
Section 97.13 - Death of a Person with Certain Communicable Diseases

(a) If a physician has knowledge that a person had, at the time of death, a communicable disease listed in subsection (c) of this section, then the hospital administrator, clinic administrator, nurse, or the physician shall affix or cause to be affixed a tag on the body, preferably the great toe.

(b) The tag shall be on card stock paper and shall be no smaller than five centimeters by ten centimeters. The tag shall include the words "COMMUNICABLE DISEASE--BLOOD/BODY SUBSTANCE PRECAUTIONS REQUIRED" in letters no smaller than six millimeters in height. The name of the deceased person shall be written on the tag. The tag shall remain affixed to the body until the preparation of the body for burial has been completed.

(c) Diseases that shall require tagging are acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS); anthrax; brucellosis; cholera; Hantavirus pulmonary syndrome; hepatitis, viral; human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection; novel coronavirus; novel influenza; plague; prion diseases, such as Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD); Q fever; rabies; Rocky Mountain spotted fever; smallpox; syphilis; tuberculosis (Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex); tularemia; and viral hemorrhagic fever.

(d) All persons should routinely practice standard infection control procedures when performing postmortem care on a deceased person who is known or suspected of having a communicable disease listed in subsection (c) of this section.