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SBOH Rules
Communicable Disease Control and Prevention
HIV/AIDS Policy Review
The Board of Health and the Department of Health
launched a joint initiative to review procedures,
policies, rules, and statutes related to HIV/AIDS and
other blood borne infections in 2003. This resulted in
the Board revising sections of chapter
246-100 WAC and
246-101 WAC for HIV at its April 2005 meeting. The
Board adopted additional revisions to chapter 246-101
WAC regarding name retention for HIV case reports in
June 2006.
The Board adopted changes to chapter 246-100 WAC
regarding testing, pre-test counseling, and partner
notification at its November 2009 meeting and a CR-103
was filed in December 2009. The changes made the rule
language more consistent with Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention 2006 revised recommendations for
HIV testing and 2008 recommendations for partner
services (formerly known as partner notification). The
rule changes eliminate the requirement to provide
detailed pretest counseling prior to prescribing an HIV
test while still requiring informed consent either
separately or as part of consent for a battery of
routine tests. The revisions also provided public health
officials with the flexibility to initiate contact with
individuals diagnosed with HIV infection to offer them
partner services or HIV post-test counseling. The goals
of these changes are to: (1) reduce barriers to HIV
testing to increase the number of residents aware of
their HIV status; (2) enhance the health of individuals
who are HIV infected, by making them aware of their HIV
status so they can receive treatment earlier; and (3)
increase patient awareness, to help prevent transmission
of HIV and reduce the number of new HIV infections.
Statutory Authority:
RCW 43.20.050 and
70.24 RCW
SBOH Contact:
Tara Wolff, 360-236-4101
DOH Contact:
John Peppert, 360-236-3427
Notifiable Conditions Rule Revision
The
Board adopted changes to the Notifiable Conditions
chapter at a public hearing on November 10, 2004. The
affected sections are
WAC 246-101-015,
101,
201, and
301. The changes expanded the list of notifiable
conditions to include conditions that were provisionally
notifiable and added hepatitis C and hepatitis B to the
list of conditions reportable by laboratories. The
provisionally notifiable conditions that were added to
the permanent list of reportable conditions include:
autism spectrum disorders, cerebral palsy, alcohol
related birth defects, newly diagnosed cases and
previously unreported cases of prevalent hepatitis B
(chronic) and hepatitis C (acute and chronic), initial
genital infection with herpes simplex, abdominal wall
congenital defects, and arboviral diseases.
Information regarding notifiable conditions is
available from the Department of Healths Web site.
The
Board received a briefing from the Department in October
2008 which recommended possible amendments to certain
sections of the notifiable conditions rules.
(Chapter 246-101 WAC relating to reporting of
communicable diseases and animal bites, excluding
WAC 246-101-520 (Special conditions - AIDS and HIV),
and
WAC 246-101-635 (Special conditions - AIDS and HIV))
was opened in August of 2009.
The
rule was opened because there are a number of changes
and developments in notifiable conditions reporting that
should be addressed including: identification of new
conditions, national or international requirements, new
laboratory methods, and improvements in reporting
technologies. There is also a need to address current
rule language that is unclear or incomplete. In
addition, an emergency rule adopted on June 11, 2009 for
the provisional reporting of novel influenza A (H1N1)
for hospitalized patients or death needs to be reviewed
for permanent notification. Since, the rule was filed
an ad hoc committee was created to make recommendations
to the State Board of Health on: (1) criteria to
determine which communicable diseases should be a
notifiable condition and (2) a list of revisions to
Chapter 246-101 WAC.
Statutory Authority:
RCW 43.20.050 and
70.24.125
SBOH Contact:
Tara Wolff, 360-236-4101
DOH Contact:
Pam Lovinger, 360-236-4225
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