Sec. 44.20. Definitions

For the purposes of these rules and regulations, the following definitions shall apply:

(a) Arthropod shall mean a member of the phylum Arthropoda, animals with jointed appendages.

(b) Presumptive human case shall mean the occurrence of one or more of the following:

(1) California Encephalitis: Central nervous system (CNS) symptoms plus serum titers consistent with the illness for example, HI ≥ 1:40, CF ≥ 1:8 or Neut ≥ 3 logs.

(2) Eastern Equine Encephalitis (EEE): CNS symptoms and single serum titers consistent with the illness, for example, HI ≥ 1:80, CF ≥ 1:16.

(3) Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever: headache, fever, rash, history of tick exposure and positive serologies.

(4) St. Louis Encephalitis: CNS symptoms plus single serum titers consistent with the illness, for example, HI ≥ 1:80, CF ≥ 1:16.

(c) Confirmed human case shall mean the occurrence of one or more of the following:

(1) California Encephalitis: virus isolation and/or CNS symptoms plus four-fold or greater rise or fall in antibody titers.

(2) Eastern Equine Encephalitis: virus isolation and/or four-fold or greater rise or fall in antibody titers or 1.3 log rise or fall in neutralization index.

(3) Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever: Rickettsial isolation and/or four-fold or greater rise in antibody titers.

(4) St. Louis Encephalitis: virus isolation and/or CNS symptoms plus four-fold or greater rise or fall in antibody titers.

(d) Clustering shall mean multiple human cases of disease which may be considered related to each other by proximity, source or simultaneity of occurrence.

(e) Control shall mean any measure taken to reduce or eliminate a vector arthropod species or related disease threat. Control measures may include water management, use of biological agents, chemical ground application, chemical air application, or any other method used to reduce or eliminate vector arthropods.

(f) Endemic shall mean the continued presence of a disease in an area, or the cyclic reintroduction of a disease into the same area.

(g) Epidemic shall mean the occurrence of recognizable disease or illness in the human or animal host outside the endemic area or an excess incidence of the disease beyond that usual in an endemic area.

(h) Etiologic agent shall mean the pathogen responsible for causing a disease or illness.

(i) Host shall mean a man or other living animal, including birds and arthropods, which affords subsistence or lodgement to an infectious agent under natural conditions.

(j) Reservoir shall mean a human, animal or arthropod in which an infectious agent normally lives and multiplies and on which it depends primarily for survival and serves as a source of infection for a susceptible host.

(k) Response protocols shall mean the procedure followed by the NYSDH in response to a documented public health threat or emergency.

(l) Surveillance shall mean the epidemiologic study of a disease as a dynamic process involving the ecology of the infectious agent, the host, the reservoirs and the vectors as well as the complex mechanisms concerned in the spread of infections and the extent to which this spread occurs.

(m) Vector shall mean an arthropod species capable of carrying and transmitting a disease agent.

(n) Vector surveillance program shall mean the activities of any agency designed to accomplish any or all of the following:

(1) location of vector breeding areas;

(2) collection and identification of vector species

(3) determination of vector population densities;

(4) determination of vector species distribution;

(5) determination of physiologic or chronologic age composition of vector population;

(6) submission of site specific groups of vector species for etiologic agent isolation attempts;

(7) assessment of the vector population to determine the effectiveness of control measures; and

(8) compilation of data generated by any or all of the above.

(o) Commissioner shall mean the Commissioner of the New York State Department of Health.