DESIGNATION OF CASES
Section 2.1.
Communicable diseases designated: cases, suspected cases and certain carriers to be reported to the State Department of Health.
(a) When used in the Public Health Law and in this Chapter, the term infectious, contagious or communicable disease, shall be held to include the following diseases and any other disease which the commissioner, in the reasonable exercise of his or her medical judgment, determines to be communicable, rapidly emergent or a significant threat to public health, provided that the disease which is added to this list solely by the commissioner’s authority shall remain on the list only if confirmed by the Public Health and Health Planning Council at its next scheduled meeting:
Amebiasis
Anthrax
Arboviral infection
Babesiosis
Botulism
Brucellosis
Campylobacteriosis
Chancroid
Chlamydia trachomatis infection
Cholera
Cryptosporidiosis
Cyclosporiasis
Diphtheria
E. coli 0157:H7 infections
Ehrlichiosis
Encephalitis
Giardiasis
Glanders
Gonococcal infection
Group A Streptococcal invasive disease
Group B Streptococcal invasive disease
Hantavirus disease
Hemolytic uremic syndrome
Hemophilus influenzae (invasive disease)
Hepatitis (A; B; C)
Herpes infection in infants aged 60 days or younger (neonatal)
Hospital-associated infections (as defined in section 2.2 of this Part)
Influenza (laboratory-confirmed)
Legionellosis
Listeriosis
Lyme disease
Lymphogranuloma venereum
Malaria
Measles
Melioidosis
Meningitis
Aseptic
Hemophilus
Meningococcal
Other (specify type)
Meningococcemia
Monkeypox
Mumps
Pertussis (whooping cough)
Plague
Poliomyelitis
Psittacosis
Q Fever
Rabies
Rocky Mountain spotted fever
Rubella
Congenital rubella syndrome
Salmonellosis
Severe or novel coronavirus
Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), including Pediatric Multi-system Inflammatory Syndrome, or any other complication suspected of being associated with SARS-CoV-2 infection
Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS)
Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS)
Other (specify type)
Shigellosis
Smallpox
Staphylococcal enterotoxin B poisoning
Streptococcus pneumoniae invasive disease
Syphilis, specify stage
Tetanus
Toxic Shock Syndrome
Trichinosis
Tuberculosis, current disease (specify site)
Tularemia
Typhoid
Vaccinia disease: (as defined in Section 2.2 of this Part)
Viral hemorrhagic fever
Yersiniosis
(b) Upon receipt of a report made pursuant to section 2.10, the city, county or district health officer shall retain a copy in his record of the reports of such communicable diseases as the State Commissioner of Health may direct, and shall retain these copies until their destruction is authorized by the State Commissioner of Health, and shall forward a copy of all reports immediately to the State Department of Health. In lieu of an individual report of each case, the city, county or district health officer may, with the written consent of the State Commissioner of Health, make such summarized reports as the commissioner may require.
(c) Any disease outbreak or unusual disease shall also be reported to the State Department of Health as provided in subdivision (b) of this section. Unusual disease is defined as a newly apparent or emerging disease or syndrome of uncertain etiology that a health care provider or the State Commissioner of Health has reason to believe could possibly be caused by a transmissible infectious agent or microbial toxin.
2.2 Definitions. Definitions shall include the following:
(a) For public health reporting purposes, hospital-associated infections shall include an outbreak or increased incidence of disease due to microbiological agents or their toxic products occurring in patients or persons working in the hospital. Any non-reportable hospital-associated infections must be handled nonetheless by hospitals and their infection control committees.
(b) Case shall mean a person who has been diagnosed as having a particular disease or condition. The diagnosis may be based on clinical judgement, signs and symptoms combined with known exposure based on the best available evidence of transmissibility to a case or suspected case, and/or on laboratory evidence, as applicable.
(c) Suspected case shall mean a person who has been determined as possibly having a particular disease or condition. A suspected case may be based on signs and symptoms, signs and symptoms combined with known exposure based on the best available evidence of transmissibility to a case or suspected case, and/or on laboratory evidence, as applicable. The term “suspected case” shall include persons under investigation, consistent with any guidance that the Commissioner of Health may issue with respect to a particular disease.
(d) An outbreak is defined as an increased incidence of disease above its expected or baseline level. As the number of cases which indicate the presence of an outbreak vary according to the infectious agent, size and type of population exposed, previous exposure or lack of exposure to the disease, and time and place of occurrence, the expected or baseline level of disease shall be assessed by hospitals and their infection control committees as directed in section 405.11 of this Title. While an outbreak usually involves several cases of illness (e.g., food-borne poisoning, influenza), it may consist of just one case for certain rare and/or serious diseases (e.g., botulism, measles).
(e) As used in this Part, local health authority is defined as the health officer of a county, part-county, city, town, village, consolidated health district, or any county or public health director having all the powers and duties prescribed in section 352 of the Public Health Law.
(f) As used in this Part, the term "approved laboratory" or "laboratory approved for the examination" shall mean, as the case may be, a laboratory possessing either a certificate of approval for the specified examination issued by the State Commissioner of Health under the authority of Title 1 of Article 5 of the Public Health Law or a permit for the specified examination issued by said Commissioner under the authority of Title 5 of said Article.
(g) As used in this part, the term vaccinia disease shall mean:
(1) persons with vaccinia infection due to contact transmission; and
(2) persons with the following complications from vaccination: eczema vaccinatum, erythema multiforme major or Stevens-Johnson syndrome, fetal vaccinia, generalized vaccinia, inadvertent inoculation, ocular vaccinia, post-vaccinial encephalitis or encephalomyelitis, progressive vaccinia, pyogenic infection of the vaccination site, and any other serious adverse events (i.e. those resulting in hospitalization, permanent disability, life-threatening illness or death).
(h) Contact shall mean any person known to have been sufficiently associated with a case or suspected case that, based on the best available evidence of transmissibility, such person has had the opportunity to contract a particular disease or condition.
(i) Isolation shall mean the physical separation and confinement of an individual or group of individuals who are infected or reasonably determined by the State Commissioner of Health or local health authority to be infected with a highly contagious disease or organism, for such time as will prevent or limit the transmission of the reportable disease or organism to non-isolated individuals, in the clinical judgment of the State Commissioner of Health, or of the local health authority and consistent with any direction that the State Commissioner of Health may issue.
(j) Quarantine shall mean the physical separation and confinement of an individual or groups of individuals who are reasonably determined by the State Commissioner of Health or local health authority to have been exposed to a highly contagious communicable disease, but who do not show signs or symptoms of such disease, for such time as will prevent transmission of the disease, in the clinical judgment of the State Commissioner of Health, or of the local health authority and consistent with any direction that the State Commissioner of Health may issue.
(k) Home quarantine or home isolation shall mean quarantine or isolation in a person’s home, consistent with this Part and any direction that the State Commissioner of Health may issue;
(l) Congregate quarantine shall mean quarantine at a location operated or contracted by the State or local health authority, consistent with this Part and any direction that the State Commissioner of Health may issue, where multiple persons are quarantined;
(m) Highly contagious communicable disease shall mean a communicable disease or unusual disease that the State Commissioner of Health determines may present a serious risk of harm to the public health, for which isolation or quarantine may be required to prevent its spread.
(n) Monitor shall mean contacting a person who is the subject of an isolation or quarantine order by the State Department of Health or local health authority, to ensure compliance with the order and to determine whether such person requires a higher level of medical care, consistent with any direction that the State Commissioner of Health may issue.
(o) Mandatory quarantine shall mean quarantine pursuant to a legal order consistent with this Part.
(p) Voluntary quarantine shall mean quarantine pursuant to a voluntary agreement with a public health authority.
(q) Confinement shall mean enforcement of an isolation or quarantine order through the use or possible use of law enforcement personnel.