Section 696.100  Definitions

"Active Tuberculosis Disease" or "Active TB Disease" means a diagnosis demonstrated by clinical, bacteriologic or diagnostic imaging evidence, or a combination thereof. Persons who have been diagnosed as having active TB and have not completed a course of TB treatment are still considered to have active tuberculosis and may be infectious.

            "Bacteriologic Examinations" means tests done in a mycobacteriology laboratory to diagnose active TB disease, including smears for acid-fast bacilli (AFB), cultures and other tests for Mycobacterium (M.) tuberculosis, and drug susceptibility tests.

            "Confirmed Case" means an occurrence of active TB disease that is laboratory confirmed or, in the absence of laboratory confirmation, an occurrence that meets the clinical case definition.

            Laboratory confirmation – Laboratory criteria for diagnosis include isolation of M. tuberculosis from a clinical specimen; demonstration of M. tuberculosis by other laboratory technique; or demonstration of acid-fast bacilli in a clinical specimen when a culture has not been or cannot be obtained.

            Clinical case definition – A clinical case meets all the following criteria:  a positive TB screening test; other signs and symptoms compatible with active TB disease, such as an abnormal, unstable (worsening or improving) chest radiograph, or clinical evidence of current disease; treatment with two or more anti-tuberculosis medications; and completed diagnostic evaluation.

"Contact" means a person who has been exposed to M. tuberculosis by sharing air space with a person with infectious TB.

            "Department" means the Illinois Department of Public Health.

            "Directly Observed Therapy" or "DOT" means a process by which a trained health care worker or other designated trained person watches the patient swallow each dose of TB medication. 

"Health Care Setting" means any relationship (physical or organizational) in which a health care worker might share air space with a person with active TB disease or in which a health care worker might be in contact with clinical specimens.

            "Health Care Worker" means a paid or unpaid person working in a health care setting who has the potential for exposure to M. tuberculosis through air space shared with persons with infectious TB disease, or contact with clinical specimens.

            "High-Risk Groups" means categories of people with an increased probability of becoming infected with TB, or who, once infected, have increased probability of progressing to active TB disease.

            "Infectious" means that a person has, or is suspected of having, active TB disease of the respiratory tract capable of producing infection or disease in others as demonstrated by the presence of AFB in the sputum or bronchial secretions or by chest radiograph and clinical findings.

            "Isolation" means the physical separation and confinement of a person with suspected or confirmed active TB disease in a place and under conditions that prevent the transmission of the infection.  

"Latent TB Infection" or "LTBI" means the condition in which organisms capable of causing disease (i.e., M. tuberculosis) enter the body and elicit a response from the host's immune defenses.  LTBI may or may not progress to clinical disease.

            "Local TB Control Authority" means the agency at the local level recognized by the Department as having jurisdiction over the prevention and control of tuberculosis.  The local TB control authority may be an autonomous TB board or a TB program within a local health department.

            "Mantoux Tuberculin Skin Test" or "Mantoux Skin Test" means a method of skin testing that is performed by injecting 0.1 mL of purified protein derivative (PPD) tuberculin containing five tuberculin units into the dermis of the forearm with a needle and syringe.

            "Non-infectious" means a person previously determined to be infectious who now meets all the following criteria:

            has received a minimum of two weeks of standard multidrug anti-tuberculosis treatment in accordance with Treatment of Tuberculosis, incorporated by reference in Section 696.110(a);

            has demonstrated clinical improvement in response to therapy; and

            has three consecutive negative AFB sputum smear results from sputum collected in eight-hour or greater intervals, with at least one being an early morning specimen.

"Serious Adverse Medication Reaction" means any reaction to a medication used for the treatment of active TB or Latent TB Infection that requires a treatment interruption or a change in the treatment regimen, or results in significant or permanent damage or impairment, hospitalization or death.

            "Suspected Case" means a tentative diagnosis, while diagnostic procedures are being completed, of active TB disease, whether or not treatment has been started, or a person with an illness marked by signs, symptoms and/or laboratory tests that may be indicative of tuberculosis.

"TB Screening Test" means a federal Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved screening test to detect TB infection.  Examples of screening tests include, but are not limited to, the Mantoux tuberculin skin test and whole blood interferon-gamma release assays.

(Source:  Amended at 36 Ill. Reg. 15267, effective October 2, 2012)