139A.2 Definitions.

For purposes of this chapter, unless the context otherwise requires:

1. “Area quarantine” means prohibiting ingress and egress to and from a building or buildings, structure or structures, or other definable physical location, or portion thereof, to prevent or contain the spread of a suspected or confirmed quarantinable disease or to prevent or contain exposure to a suspected or known chemical, biological, radioactive, or other hazardous or toxic agent.

2. “Business” means and includes every trade, occupation, or profession.

3. “Care provider” means an individual who is trained and authorized by federal or state law to provide health care services or services of any kind in the course of the individual’s official duties, for compensation or in a voluntary capacity, who is a health care provider, emergency medical care provider as defined in section 147A.1, fire fighter, or peace officer. “Care provider” also means an individual who renders emergency care or assistance in an emergency or due to an accident as described in section 613.17.

4. “Communicable disease” means any disease spread from person to person or animal to person.

5. “Contagious or infectious disease” means hepatitis in any form, meningococcal disease, AIDS or HIV as defined in section 141A.1, tuberculosis, and any other disease determined to be life-threatening to a person exposed to the disease as established by rules adopted by the department, based upon a determination by the state epidemiologist and in accordance with guidelines of the centers for disease control and prevention of the United States department of health and human services.

6. “Department” means the Iowa department of public health.

7. “Designated officer” means a person who is designated by a department, agency, division, or service organization to act as an infection control liaison officer.

8. “Exposure” means a specific eye, mouth, other mucous membrane, nonintact skin, or parenteral contact with blood or other potentially infectious bodily fluids.

9. “Exposure-prone procedure” means a procedure performed by a health care provider which presents a recognized risk of percutaneous injury to the health care provider and if such an injury occurs, the health care provider’s blood is likely to contact a patient’s body cavity, subcutaneous tissues, or mucous membranes, or an exposure-prone procedure as defined by the centers for disease control and prevention of the United States department of health and human services.

10. “HBV” means hepatitis B virus.

11. “Health care facility” means a health care facility as defined in section 135C.1, an ambulatory surgical center, or a clinic.

12. “Health care provider” means a person licensed to practice medicine and surgery, osteopathic medicine and surgery, chiropractic, podiatry, nursing, dentistry, optometry, or as a physician assistant, dental hygienist, or acupuncturist.

13. “HIV” means HIV as defined in section 141A.1.

14. “Hospital” means hospital as defined in section 135B.1.

15. “Isolation” means the separation of persons or animals presumably or actually infected with a communicable disease or who are disease carriers for the usual period of communicability of that disease in such places, marked by placards if necessary, and under such conditions as will prevent the direct or indirect conveyance of the infectious agent or contagion to susceptible persons.

16. “Local board” means the local board of health.

17. “Local department” means the local health department.

18. “Placard” means a warning sign to be erected and displayed on the periphery of a quarantine area, forbidding entry to or exit from the area.

19. “Public health disaster” means public health disaster as defined in section 135.140.

20. “Quarantinable disease” means any communicable disease designated by rule adopted by the department as requiring quarantine or isolation to prevent its spread.

21. “Quarantine” means the limitation of freedom of movement of persons or animals that have been exposed to a quarantinable disease within specified limits marked by placards for a period of time equal to the longest usual incubation period of the disease in such manner as to prevent the spread of a quarantinable disease which affects people.

22. “Reportable disease” means any disease designated by rule adopted by the department requiring its occurrence to be reported to an appropriate authority.

23. “Sexually transmitted disease or infection” means a disease or infection as identified by rules adopted by the department, based upon a determination by the state epidemiologist and in accordance with guidelines of the centers for disease control and prevention of the United States department of health and human services.

24. “Significant exposure” means a situation in which there is a risk of contracting disease through exposure to a person’s infectious bodily fluids in a manner capable of transmitting an infectious agent as determined by the centers for disease control and prevention of the United States department of health and human services and adopted by rule of the department.

25. “Terminal cleaning” means cleaning procedures defined in the isolation guidelines issued by the centers for disease control and prevention of the United States department of health and human services.

2000 Acts, ch 1066, §2; 2001 Acts, ch 24, §29; 2001 Acts, ch 157, §1 – 3; 2003 Acts, ch 33, §9, 11; 2004 Acts, ch 1168, §6; 2006 Acts, ch 1079, §2; 2008 Acts, ch 1088, §141; 2011 Acts, ch 63, §18, 19

Referred to in §135.144, 141A.9, 356.48